Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars
by Lynxara
Summary: Heroes and villains from throughout Gundam's Dark History are abducted by a mysterious, seemingly omnipotent being called the Beyonder. Placed on a copy of Earth, they are divided into teams and ordered to battle as part of a deadly game...
1. Chapter 1

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Synopsis: A handful of heroes and villains from throughout the Dark History are abducted by a mysterious seemingly omnipotent being called the Beyonder. Placed on a simulacrum of Earth, they are divided into seemingly arbitrary teams and ordered to fight a war that seems completely meaningless to the bewildered pilots trapped within the Beyonder's grasp.

Chapter Synopsis: Five pilots, strangers to each other, meet each other in a strange corridor. After many misunderstandings, they set out to try and figure out where they are, and who has put them there.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible. Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

The Beyonder had little concept of time. He was a quantum being, for whom probability, possibility, and actuality were effectively the same. To his immortal eyes, the Dark History and its sprawling, cyclical wars happened in a searing flash. From his conception, he was absorbed in it. Yet as his momentary dream of stellar conflict wound to a close, the Beyonder found himself in a curious position.

Somehow the universe had gone from the multiplicity of beings that existed at the beginning of time, to only himself. He felt stars dying within him; he felt sub-atomic particles sing within the elemental structures they formed. The vastness of the universe was as nothing to the Beyonder's mind-- truly, it was inseparable from the Beyonder's mind. There were no other sentient thoughts within its emptiness. No more battles, no more lost causes or surging hopes. Emptiness, filled only with himself.

The Beyonder did not understand how this possibility had made itself manifest, why the roaring cacophony of the Dark History had slimmed itself into his expansive solitude. He hated it. He yearned for symphony of other minds breathing and dying around his. It seemed like a brief memory now. Perhaps he could re-create the dream of glory that he was born in.

The Beyonder's memory was the full extent of the Dark History, everything that ever was or could have been. It was as tangible and real as his own cosmic being. To reach into it, crystallize it, and give it form within the stifling emptiness of the Present was nothing. All great things could be easily understood by reducing them to their simplest components.

The Beyonder would understand the Dark History by breaking it down into what seemed its most essential component: combat. He needed only aggressors, protectors, ships to bear them and exceptional men to lead them. Inspiration guided him to selections that seemed, of all the possibilities open to him, most right and perfect.

Christina MacKenzie had found that only a few hours of systems testing in the NT-1 Alex was enough to leave her eyes sore and her head throbbing. She constantly recommended throttling the combat computer's output, and was constantly reminded that the NT-1's designated pilot would be able to handle it. To Christina, who had never given the paranormal rumors of Newtypes even a moment's serious thought, it seemed a perfectly ridiculous waste of money. Still, orders were orders, so she reported for her weekly dose of headaches and frustration regularly.

Her head hurt right now, but it was not the internal throb of a feedback overload. It was a splitting pain from the back of her head, like piloting without a helmet on. Christina abruptly realized that her eyes were closed, and her head was resting against some flat surface. She could feel the familiar weave of her standard-issue Federation uniform rubbing against her skin. That seemed odd; hadn't she been in a normal suit for her systems test, just a second ago?

Christina opened her eyes to try and reconcile her sensory feedback with her idea of where she should be at the moment. Shock washed over her body as she realized she was most definitely not where she was before. She was in some sort of long, sterile hallway; a metal hallway, all grays and whites, perhaps two meters wide and three meters high. Lights ran along the ceiling, filling the hallway with a bleary fluorescent glow. Like the lighting on a military ship. The hallway certainly had the cramped, boxy quality that Federation starships usually had.

"Nnn... Sochie, what..."

Christina started, body jerking stiffly to let her face the unfamiliar and unexpected voice. She saw someone deeply at odds with the sterile military surroundings. He was a teenager, perhaps even an adolescent, with dark skin like an African and shoulder-length hair that was straight and white as a grandfather's. His clothing was simple and rough, perhaps even homespun, complete with folksy suspenders to hold up his green trousers. He looked like a farmer, complete with a certain rustic simplicity in his face.

The young man rubbed the back of his head, wincing at the pain, then took a good look at his surroundings. Then his eyes met Christina's. She could see terror begin to cross his face; the terror of the unknown and unexpected.

"It's all right," Christina said. She raised herself to her knees and extended her hands toward him: empty, palms up. Harmless.

"Wh-who..." the young man stammered.

Christina suspected he was younger than she had initially thought. There was a lingering boyishness in his movements. "My name is Christina. What's yours?"

"Loran." He kept staring at her-- no, at her uniform. Maybe he didn't like soldiers?

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you. Can you tell me where we are right now?" The sweetness she forced into her voice seemed to have the desired calming effect upon Loran.

"No. I... I don't know what this place is..."

"We can find out together. Come on, Loran." Christina stood, then extended a hand to help her new friend up.

"Okay," Loran smiled a little, his suspicion easing.

"I don't guess you two would mind a third?"

The new voice seemed to come from behind Christina, and she whirled to face the speaker. Loran's soft gasp indicated that, somehow, he too had failed to notice the man in the hallway with them.

"Don't panic, don't panic, I'm as lost as you two..." The new man was also dark-skinned, though not quite so dark as Loran. His wavy hair and the fine rime of stubble about his chin suggested a Latin origin to Christina's mind. He seemed old, definitely a good ten years older than herself at the least. He was wearing some sort of military uniform, though Christina could not quite place the colors. It seemed more like a Federation variant than a Zeon one, but that wasn't comforting in this strange environment. He wore a bomber jacket over his clothing, an icon shaped much like South America emblazoned over his heart.

The newcomer gave Christina a wide and apologetic smile. "I don't guess I drank too much and followed you home last night, huh?"

"No such luck," Christina said. She could tell he was trying to be ingratiating, but she hardly felt charmed.

Loran stepped forward a bit, his slender frame letting him edge just in front of Christina. "What's your name, sir?" he asked.

"Call me Ed, kid," he replied. "You know what's going on?"

"No. I don't think any of us do. This is obviously some kind of kidnapping," said a fourth voice.

Somehow it came from behind Ed, but she hadn't seen anyone round the corner at the hallway's end and approach. A second glance revealed a man slumped against the wall behind Ed. Christina's heart caught in her throat as she watched him rise to his feet.

He was tall and broad-shouldered without seeming like an unflatteringly large or muscular man. No, his build was fit and lean, his posture straight and unyielding. His face was positively photogenic, with icy blue eyes and immaculate blond hair. He carried himself with quiet pride, and presented the very model of Teutonic perfection. His red officer's uniform, emblazoned with theatrical gold and black, only enhanced his dramatic good looks. He was not just Zeon; he could have stepped out of their recruitment poster.

Loran shrank from the Zeke's piercing gaze, flattening against the wall. Ed seemed confused.

Christina felt terror coil into the pit of her stomach. Her hands flew toward her duty sidearm. The Zeke pulled a gun from the smart black holster attached to his belt just as fast.

Ed futilely tried to throw himself against one wall and out of the line of fire. "What the hell--!" he shouted.

"Zeon!" was all Christina could manage. It was a warning and an accusation.

"Can it, Feddie." The immaculate Zeke's brusque tone shattered the illusion of otherworldly perfection about him. "Too many civilians for a firefight. Shall we find out what's going on instead?"

"How do I know..." Christina began, trying to put steel in her voice. "... how do I know you aren't responsible!"

"I could ask the same thing. The circumstance leads me to think otherwise," the Zeke replied. "But if it makes you feel better, I'll swear upon the Lady Kycilia's honor that I am not responsible for this, and that I will not hurt any of you."

Christina was not much convinced by an oath sworn on a Zabi's honor.

Still, the Zeke lowered and holstered his pistol, even though Christina still had a bead drawn on him. His eyes met hers without fear. "Major Johnny Ridden, Zeon Mobile Assault Forces."

"Zeon?" Ed asked. The syllables sounded stiff and unnatural in his voice, as if saying them for the first time.

"What's Zeon?" Loran asked. His sincerity was jarring.

Christina lowered her gun, bewildered. Major Ridden seemed as startled by Ed and Loran's responses.

"Ow, my head..." said another voice. It cut heedlessly through the awkward silence. This man had somehow appeared behind Christina. Like all the others, he rose from the ground, apparently stiff and in pain. He had a strange, wild look to him, brown hair barely held back by thick headband. He wore a vest that seemed like a workman's, matched with baggy, worn pants stained with grease.

"Okay, what's going on? Professor?" He paused as he realized that the others were staring at him, and he began to feel the tension in the room. "... okay, this is so not the ReHOME..." His eyes darted toward Ed, as if seizing on something recognizable. "... hey, Alliance? What's going on? I'm not in trouble, right?"

Ed laughed. "Not from me, I'm just glad to hear someone talking sense. I'm Alliance, but I'm with the South Americans. What are you, mercenary? Civilian?"

The man seemed pleased enough to utterly ignore Christina and the others. "No, Junk Guild! Name's Lowe, Lowe Gear... what's going on? I mean, if this isn't an Alliance ship..."

Christina felt a wave of despair wash over her, as Ed and Lowe had a conversation that seemed, to her, to consist of nothing but gibberish.

"I don't even know what the Alliance is." Loran seemed even more disturbed than Christina was feeling. "You can't be Militas or Diana Counter... I don't know what any of this is! This is all wrong, I shouldn't be here..."

"I'm beginning to think none of us should," Major Ridden said.

"You two act like soldiers," Ed began, helpfully, "but there's no army called Zeon, and... well, I don't even know what army you're with, MacKenzie."

"Lieutenant MacKenzie," she sighed, holstering her gun for now. "And I'm with the Earth Federation." She saw Ed and Lowe exchange a curious glance at that, but couldn't begin to think of what it actually meant.

"Federation? Like... O.M.N.I., right?" Ed asked. Christina simply shook her head no.

"I'm no soldier," Lowe continued. "And neither is the kid there, either, right?"

Loran shifted uncomfortably in place. "Not exactly. I haven't heard of anything you've talked about, though. I've never been in a place like this."

"You're from Earth, aren't you?" Major Ridden asked.

There was, again, something furtive about Loran's response. Christina had the feeling his answers were mere half-truths. "Well, yes..."

"That's probably it. Being in a warship would have to seem disorienting to an Earthnoid civilian," Major Ridden said. "But there's no mistake, this is a warship."

"A warship?" Ed sputtered. "Come on, just look at this thing's insides! Who'd take this into a fight?"

"Yeah, it's gotta be some kind of antique," Lowe agreed. His eyes got misty. "Man, I've never seen anything like this before..."

"Still, we can agree it's a ship, can't we?" Christina said. "So that means we just need to find the bridge to find out where we are. Once we know that much, I'm sure we'll find out there's a rational explanation for what's happened to us."

"Okay, but only if you guys tell me who the heck you are," Lowe said. Despite his good-natured grin, Christina's heart sank. She had a sudden nightmare of strangers arriving until the hallway was clogged full, each demanding her name and staring with goggle-eyed incomprehension when she mentions the idea of the Earth Federation.

Ed seemed more content to repeat himself, since Lowe at least seemed to be from the same general sort of "place". "Edward Harrelson. Call me Ed."

Lowe did a sudden double take, which meshed poorly with his attempt to begin walking at the same time. "... serious? Ed the Ripper?"

"Hey! You've heard of me!" Ed laughed. "Don't let the name scare you, though, I'm not so bad as all that anymore."

As Ed and Lowe talked, Loran began conspicuously trying to get away from them and back to Christina's side. Major Ridden seemed utterly unperturbed by Ed's rather macabre nickname. Christina, for her part, suspected it was merely an ace nickname, one that happened to be infamous in whatever place Ed was originally from. Loran seemed legitimately bothered, but if he was indeed a civilian, then it probably sounded like a gang name to him.

Major Ridden slowly pulled into the lead of the impromptu formation, with Lowe and Ed in the center, and Christina and Loran at the rear. She was a bit annoyed with herself after a few paces, as it occurred to her that she had no idea where Johnny was going, or why she hadn't demanded to know, or why it was so easy to follow him around when he was the enemy.

She nearly bumped into Lowe's back as their column came to a sudden stop. She opened her mouth in protest, but then saw Johnny gesturing toward the rest of the column for silence. Ed was wary; Lowe and Loran seemed to be trying not to breathe. Christina's eyes spotted what had probably caused Major Ridden to bring the column to a halt up ahead, where the hallway came to a T-shaped intersection.

One of the shadows curved, in that fashion that was unique to the human silhouette. Someone was lying in wait for them behind the corner. There was no telling how long he or she had been there. Major Ridden drew his sidearm and approached the unknown, slowly, silently.

Christina suddenly felt a perverse sense of relief; somehow she felt safer knowing that Johnny was handling the situation. She would probably be angry with herself over it later.

The silhouette's outline did not change. Whoever was lying in wait for them didn't realize how close Major Ridden was drawing to his position. There wasn't even a sign of a weapon being drawn. In a swift, decisive motion, Johnny rounded the corner with his gun out and pointed. "Freeze!" he shouted.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Notes:

Christina MacKenzie is the protagonist of the beautiful Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket OAV.

Loran Cehack is the protagonist of Turn-A Gundam. It's not one of my favorite Gundam series, to be honest, but was too perfect a character not to use.

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson is one of the Gundam SEED MSV aces. Obviously, his appearance in this story takes place after Kira Yamato has convinced him to become a benevolent defender of South America.

Lowe Gear is from fairly early in the Gundam SEED ASTRAY sidestory manga, and so hasn't met Ed yet. Still, it seemed the Ripper's reputation should precede him.

Major Johnny Ridden, of course, is the original MSV ace pilot. His physical appearance and personality change a bit as he moves from his original manga to his various video game appearances, so I decided to use a composite here that best suited my purposes in the story.


	2. Chapter 2

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars 

Chapter Synopsis: Johnny Ridden flushes out the unknown stranger who was lying in wait for the other pilots. His identity becomes a valuable piece in the puzzle.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

The silhouette's outline did not change. Whoever was lying in wait for them didn't realize how close Major Ridden was drawing to his position. There wasn't even a sign of a weapon being drawn. In a swift, decisive motion, Johnny rounded the corner with his gun out and pointed. "Freeze!" he shouted.

Christina heard a man's startled shout. She pressed between Lowe and Ed to see who the culprit was for herself.

He was a man a few years older than Johnny, but shorter and lighter. His hair was light brown, clipped short, and curly; it was really the only outstanding feature about him. He was otherwise very plain-looking, perhaps a bit tired in the eyes and stern about the jaw. He seemed especially unimpressive while being menaced by a physical specimen like Johnny Ridden.

What was interesting was his uniform. It was plainly Earth Federation, although the pattern and colors weren't exactly right. His uniform was at once brighter and more aggressive. The bomber jacket he wore over it was similar to Ed's, but seemed a bit plainer. The front was plain, and an unfamiliar bell-like insignia rested on the upper shoulders, above the EFF insignia.

Johnny kept his gun trained on the stranger, and his expression was stern. "Why so reclusive? Come out and join the party."

The stranger took a few steps back from Johnny. He kept his gun up, for all that Major Ridden clearly had the drop on him. "I... it's hard to explain... "

"Drop the gun, come on out and give it your best try anyway," Johnny said.

The stranger's arms trembled slightly. "... if you do. I'm sure you recognize my uniform as well as I recognize yours."

"If I was going to shoot you I already would have." Annoyance rose in Johnny's voice. "I don't trust your judgment that much. Put yours away first."

"Major Ridden, that's hardly fair," Christina said. It was largely an excuse for her to step fully into view, and let the stranger realize he wasn't alone. Ordinarily Christina wouldn't trust a man based just on his uniform, but it was too easy for her to imagine how dreadful the situation must look, and how intimidating a figure Major Ridden could be.

Johnny frowned slightly in her direction, but lowered his gun. The stranger followed in seconds; revealing herself had done the trick as Christina hoped.

Loran peeked his head around the corner, once the guns were no longer being pointed. "What's your name, sir?" he asked.

"And do people always say hi by trying to shoot each other where you're from?" Lowe added.

The stranger holstered his gun as he introduced himself. "Captain Amuro Ray, Londo Bell." He watched Christina and Johnny's faces carefully for a moment after introducing himself. He only relaxed after whatever he was looking for failed to materialize.

A quick round of introductions followed, but Amuro seemed to have overheard quite a bit of their conversations already. Christina wanted to say more to him, but was nagged by the strange feeling that she should be recognizing him and simply wasn't.

"So what about this 'hard explanation' of yours?" Johnny asked.

"I'd even settle for an exit," Ed said with a scratch of his chin.

Amuro's brow furrowed. "I'll start by saying I can't send any of you back to wherever you're supposed to be, as much as I would like to. I'm not the one responsible for this." Christina made mental note of that particular turn of phrase. It implied that whoever had gathered them together could send them back.

"That's all right." Loran took Amuro's disclaimer as an apology of sorts. Perhaps that was even, in part, how Amuro had meant it.

Lowe was outright friendly. "Yeah, whatever you can tell us has to be better than what we were coming up with on our own. Which was squat."

Amuro took a deep breath before he moved on. "Alright, then. You're all standing in the rear decks of the Earth Federation capital ship White Base."

"White Base?!" Christina gasped. "You mean... you mean..."

He nodded to her. "Yes, that White Base. The first Pegasus-class ship." When he saw the confusion on the faces of Lowe and the others who didn't recognize the name, he elaborate. "At time of manufacture, it was a state-of-the-art piece of technology in every way."

"Really?" Lowe asked, tapping the wall again. "I figured it was some kinda carrier... reminds me of the Archangel, a little. Kinda dated, though."

Loran looked around the sterile hallways with childlike wonder. "So it really is a warship..."

Ed whistled. "Nice digs."

"The so-called 'Trojan Horse'." Johnny smiled, no trace of joy or mirth on his face.

Christina felt a surge of alarm. Why would such a high-ranking officer reveal

"The majority of you sound like you're soldiers..." Amuro began, hesitantly. His pause invited the others to protest if they felt they should.

Loran pointedly said nothing, but Lowe was quick to speak up. "I'm no soldier! I'm a mechanic, the best mechanic in the Junk Guild." He pounded his chest once, proudly, for emphasis.

"... still, the rest of you are soldiers?" Amuro asked. He was insistent on that point.

"Just like you, Feddie," Johnny replied. "And I'm still waiting on that explanation."

"So am I!" The sound of reverberating metal rattled down the corridor, as if someone immensely strong had just punched the wall. A glance behind Amuro revealed that someone actually had punched the wall: an intense-looking teenager with pale skin, wild black hair, and piercing red eyes. He was dressed in a bold crimson uniform with high boots and a long coat, that put Christina instantly in mind of Johnny Ridden's flashy Zeon commander's uniform.

He stalked toward the group, consumed with self-righteous fury. "Right now, it sounds to me like we've been kidnapped by the Earth Alliance! So all I want to know is how and why." His anger seemed to feed on itself, a mobius loop of escalating rage. His face grew blacker as he spoke. Amuro was visibly startled; Christina herself had no idea what to say.

"Relax, kid." Lowe actually stepped forward to try and calm the newcomer. "You're not in C.E. 71 anymore, there's no war to fight here. We're all stuck, it's not the Alliance."

The boy snorted derisively at Lowe. "Like I believe that. It's C.E. 73 and you know it."

"What the hell? It's C.E. 72!" Ed exclaimed. "What's this crap about a war being on next year?"

"What's this crap about you guys being from the future!" Lowe shouted back.

"I'm from C.C. 2345..." Loran muttered. He didn't look like he expected anyone to recognize the date, or care much.

Johnny raised an eyebrow. "MacKenzie and I are both from U.C. 0079... what about you, Captain?"

Amuro looked distinctly uncomfortable, and his answer rang hollow. "Oh, something like that... um, would you mind introducing yourself?" He turned his attention toward the red-coated newcomer.

The boy's answer was haughty and dismissive. "Shin Asuka, ZAFT. Who are you to be asking?" He glowered at Amuro, who didn't bother to rise to the boy's jibe, but did seem quietly irritated with him.

"A ZAFT ace," Ed shook his head in dismay at Shin's red coat. "Things just get more and more interesting."

Everything about this "Shin Asuka" made Christina want to wince. Her gut instinct was to grab him by the arm and shake him for his impudence, or give him a stinging slap. Never mind that a child his age had no business being sent on military missions to begin with. Christina had no exact idea what sort of military ZAFT was, but her first impression was one of distasteful arrogance.

Major Ridden began to speak, moving the center of attention from Shin to himself. "All right, so someone's kidnapping soldiers."

"That doesn't explain why I'm here..." Loran frowned. Then a sudden insight struck him. "Unless... could they want the White Doll...?" he murmured.

Johnny gave Loran a moment's attention before continuing, but no more. "The Federation wouldn't take its own people out of commission, and if it was a legitimate Zeonic operation I'd have heard something about it. Obviously it's a third party. But that doesn't explain the rest of it, or you people." He nodded his head slightly toward Ed and the other refugees from somewhere that absolutely was not the Universal Century. "So what else can you tell us, Captain?"

"I have a communication from the person that claims to have brought us here," Amuro said.

"That's more like it. Talk," Johnny all but commanded.

"It's, ah..." Amuro rubbed his forehead, as if suffering a headache. The words he wanted obviously weren't coming. "... look, I'll just show it to you. I'm not sure I completely believe it myself, is the thing."

"Lead the way, man!" Lowe said. "The faster we can figure this out, the faster we can get back home."

Johnny nodded. "Let's see it."

"Yeah," Shin added.

"Alright. Let's go to the bridge, there's a decent-sized screen there." Amuro turned and began heading down the hallway, in the direction that Shin appeared from.

Christina let most of the others pass her by on the way to the elevator. She suddenly felt achingly tired, and in no mood to try and sort through their confusing chatter. "... This just... this has to be some kind of bad dream..."

Then there was the unmistakable feeling of a hand on her rear, indulging in a playful pinch. Christina yelped in alarm and surprise.

"Sure doesn't feel like a dream to me, sweetcheeks!" Edward grinned as he tried to fall in beside of her.

Christina's hand shot out quite before she knew what she was thinking, slapping Edward with the back of her hand. Ordinarily she found it rather rude for women to hit men, somehow expecting their smaller physical stature to exempt them from reprisals, but at the moment she was too furious to think. If her sidearm had been out, she would have pistol-whipped him. Most women in uniform gossiped about glass ceilings and institutional sexism when it came to the Federation, but she'd never been treated so shamefully before in her entire career.

"Never. Again." Each word was a threat, delivered in a voice shaking with fury.

Edward did not quite seem prepared for her reaction, and paled a little as he fell back.

Christina turned away from him and stormed into the elevator, hands balled into white-knuckled fists at her side. She did not care to look behind her this time.

Stepping onto White Base's bridge finally dissipated Christina's anger. She had been allowed to look at some of the classified files associated with the V Project as part of her preparations to become the Alex's test pilot, but most of the information regarding White Base had been omitted from what she'd seen. Seeing the magnificent bridge in person put the scant technical documents she'd seen to shame.

It was considerably more spacious than the average carrier bridge, no doubt owing to the White Base's immense size for a Federation vessel. There were more operations stations, more sensor arrays, and an absolutely tremendous external viewscreen that stood behind the ship's forward analog controls. Everything was made of bright, new metal with remarkably sophisticated lines. Even the captain's chair, framed as it was by two main tactical stations, seemed futuristic.

Loran's reaction was, if anything, more overwhelmed than Christina's. She, at least, had known that White Base existed; for Loran, it was as if he'd never been inside any sort of spaceship before. His eyes were wide with curiosity and eager incomprehension. "A warship..." he breathed.

If Johnny Ridden was impressed, he hid it well, but it was obvious that he was drinking in every possible detail of the enemy ship's bridge for an inevitable report. It made Christina wonder why Captain Ray had been so willing to let a Zeon officer on the bridge at all. She'd have to speak with him about that later.

The reactions from the "C.E." contingent were quite different. The ship merited not more than a derisive sniff from Shin, followed by a disinterested "It's old."

Ed seemed merely perplexed. "When you said 'state of the art', Captain, I was kind of expecting... I don't know. More buttons."

Lowe, however, gave the ship an appreciative whistle. "Oh, man... what an antique! Even an analog ship's wheel! I bet the monitors are even CRTs..." He seemed to get more worked up and excited the longer he talked about the ship's 'charmingly obsolete' technology. Lowe quite nearly began spinning the ship's wheel before Amuro gently placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Please don't, that could interfere with the auto-pilot systems," Amuro said. His voice was kind enough, but Lowe's sudden bout of technophilia was clearly a bit alarming.

"Sorry, sorry," Lowe cheerfully apologized. "It's just, I've never seen an antique like this up and running..."

"Auto-pilot systems?" Johnny asked. His tone was incredulous. "There's no crew""

"Originally, yes, it would take about a dozen operators at least to get White Base going," Amuro replied. "Something's just... altered the systems."

"Would that something be our host?" Johnny asked again, following the Federation captain like a crimson shadow.

"Possibly." This time Amuro's reply was distracted. He had moved to one of the forward communications stations and gone to work. He was probably pulling up that message he'd mentioned. If it was taking this long, there must be some kind of visual component.

"So what happened to the crew?" Christina asked. "They couldn't have just disappeared..."

Amuro's reaction made her think she had struck some kind of nerve. His shoulders tensed, his fingers stopped, and his voice sounded flat and empty. "I don't know. I haven't seen anyone since I came on board a few hours ago."

"But then..." Christina sucked in a troubled breath. "That means, all those people..."

"I don't see how you can say this ship looks old!" Loran exclaimed as he looked over the captain's chair. Despite Shin's off-putting demeanor, he seemed about Loran's age, and the cheerful boy was simply addressing him as such.

Christina chimed in to try and support Loran. "He's right, you know. This ship hasn't been in service more than a few months."

"It looks like hundred-year-old junk!" Shin snorted. "What, did they fire handguns out the windows? I don't see how anybody could fight in this thing..."

Embarrassment colored Loran's cheeks, despite his dark skin. "Well, I've never seen anything like it..."

Shin's voice was acid. "Yeah, I bet there's a lot of things you haven't seen."

Lowe stepped back as far as he could without running the back of his head into the captain's footrest, taking in the sight of the forward screen. It was off, showing nothing but dull white rather than even a simple exterior view. "So... where are we going?" he asked.

"I don't know, exactly," Amuro said. His voice was still distracted, as he was still working with the forward console. "My guess would be toward a local population center... I'll show you the maps in a minute. Maybe one of you recognizes it."

"We're going to Earth?" Loran asked.

"Gravity, stupid," Shin sneered. "We're already on Earth... or a colony." Loran didn't seem able to bear any more attempts at making conversation after that, and began to hang his head somewhat in embarrassment.

"Let's just hear the message," Johnny said. His voice was firm, the tone adults use when it is time for children to be silent. Christina felt strangely relieved that someone was trying to handle Shin's bullying gracefully.

There were a few more taps on the forward console, and then the view screen flickered to life. It showed a streaming field of bright stars against the pitch black background of deep space. "Alright," Amuro said. "Brace yourselves. Here it is."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Notes:

Amuro Ray is, of course, a character in many of the classic Gundam series. His appearance here is circa UC 0093, during the events of Char's Counterattack.

Shin Asuka is the divisive protagonist of Gundam SEED Destiny. He appears here from rather early in the series, when his anger was both quick and intense. He is a bit mean to Loran here, but I can only imagine someone like Loran getting on his nerves rather badly.

The C.E. Date confusion is simply to help Gundam SEED fans place where the three characters come from. Things happen very quickly in the Cosmic Era timeline, so Lowe, Ed, and Shin each hail from radically different political situations.

Ed never canonically shows signs of being unusually lusty, but his canonical appearances are rather sparse. SEED tends to be more overtly fanservicey than the staid U.C. storylines, and this seemed a good way to acknowledge that in a moment of culture clash.

Loran is from very early in Turn-A's storyline, and so has never really seen any classic Gundam-style carriers before. Turn-A was also a series with a healthy sense of wonder to it, and I wanted to emphasize this with Loran's reaction.

The idea that technology circa U.C. 0079 appears "old" to the C.E. characters is purely a play on the way modern anime fans tend to react to the mechanical designs in classic series like Gundam: derision, confusion, or intense nostalgia for a time never experienced.


	3. Chapter 3

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The castaways lost on White Base hear a missive from the Beyonder, and realize the enormity of their predicament. They also realize that their worst enemies may very well be each other.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-x-x-x-

The viewscreen filled with a crisp image of stars and galaxies flowing on into infinity. The starfield was darker and deeper than anything that might be seen from a ship or a colony; it was more like the data that might have been returned from one of the experimental deep-space probes. Christina couldn't recognize any of the star patterns or other forms that flew past the screen.

A voice began speaking to them as the field flowed on, masculine and yet oddly alien. "Greetings, pilots. As you have just learned, your universe is not the only one that exists. You are all aware of quantum mechanics, aren't you? For every possibility that might be true, there exists some universe where it is true. Just as you are one of those possibilities, so am I."

Christina blinked in surprise at the bluntness of the statement. She heard a husky "whoa" from somewhere in front of her, probably Lowe.

"It is impossible for you to comprehend precisely who I am, but suffice to say that I exist in a form that is beyond anything you've ever thought possible. I have grown interested in your individual existences, which appear to be defined by participation in battles. You specifically appear to believe your efforts are to the benefit of most other living humans."

"I wish to observe this behavior more closely. As you can see from the ship's instruments, this is a world that is populated by ordinary people who need your protection. I have also placed powerful, dangerous persons in this world who could easily slaughter or subjugate this local population. Overcome or neutralize this threat, and I will declare you the winners of this little war game. I will reward your victory in a suitable manner, and of course, return you to your original places in space-time."

"This can't be happening..." Christina breathed.

The alien voice continued. "I have provided familiar machines for you to fight with, as well as adequate stores of other necessities like food, weapons, ammunition, and replacement parts. Everything you could possibly want should be found somewhere aboard White Base. The issue of leadership I leave you to sort out among yourselves. Good luck, pilots."

Edward's fists slammed down on the console before him as the message finished. "What the hell! I don't have to time to play games right now! South America needs me!"

"I don't understand this at all." Loran's confusion was desperate.

"What's there to understand?" Shin snapped. He seemed less dismayed than many of the other pilots gathered in the bridge; if anything there was a disquieting sense of excitement in his voice. "There are innocent people here who need us. Nothing else matters but that."

"But what about Queen Diana and Kiel?!" Loran cried. He turned directly toward Shin, as if expecting an immediate answer from the other boy. Shin said nothing and looked away.

"What a twisted view of justice this being has." It was a new voice, and Christina found herself twisting around toward the rear of the bridge to see the latest new arrival. She couldn't have been less pleased with him.

Although he cut a less ridiculously impressive figure than Major Ridden, he was still a barrel-chested and straight-backed Zeon soldier, dressed in an olive green uniform. At some point during their host's speech he had taken up a position just inside the entrance to the bridge, where he still stood. His features were broad, cold, well-formed without being handsome, his long lavender-white hair pulled back into a severe ponytail. The look on his face was absolute disgust, tightly controlled.

"I am starting to wonder how our... controller is deciding who belongs on the same side," Christina said. She did not bother to restrain the look of tight disapproval forming on her face.

"I was wondering the same thing," the new Zeon said with a pitiless glance her way. "If I wasn't standing on the bridge of the Trojan Horse, with none less than the Crimson Lightning, I would hardly believe it." 

"Nice to see someone recognize my face," Johnny smiled, obviously pleased to no longer be the odd Zeke out. "Name, soldier? It looks like we have some decisions to make."

"Lieutenant Anavel Gato," the newcomer replied, saluting briskly. "It will be an honor to serve with you, Major Ridden, regardless of the distasteful circumstances."

"Distasteful..." Shin's voice trailed off in disgust, and he jerked up from his said. "What's wrong with you people?! There's a whole planet waiting out there for us to save it!"

"There's a whole continent waiting at home for me to save it!" Edward shouted at him. "And when I find the guy who ditched me here instead, I'm gonna shove an anti-ship sword up his ass sideways!"

Loran stepped in to play peacemaker, but had little effect on the anger starting to blaze in Shin's eyes. "This is a really silly thing to argue about right now..."

"... so, uh, where's the hangar?" Lowe asked, almost immediately. "Because that guy said he brought machines here, right? That means my Red Frame and who knows what else is stashed on this ship somewhere."

"It's always the lower forward decks on a Pegasus-class ship," Amuro said. "There will be two hangar areas... but, ah, when I got here, the only Mobile Suit aboard was my own. There's no telling how your machines have been arranged."

"Well, it sounds to me like we've got no choice but to go along with what this 'Beyonder' guy says. So why don't we stop fighting and see what he gave us to work with?" Lowe's voice made it clear that he was asking that question of every pilot in the room. "I mean, I don't appreciate getting dragged off without permission either, but bitching isn't gonna change it. So why not do our good deed if we've gotta, and then get our butts back where they belong?"

"Who says it's a good deed?" Johnny said. "This is a wargame, plain and simple. Our team stands a better chance if we're unified, but let's not kid ourselves about what we're really here to do."

Amuro spoke up again, quickly, as if fighting to keep the tension in the room low. "The difficulty of the situation just makes cooperating more important. Let's see what's waiting for us in the hangar and decide a course of action from there."

"Alright, Feddie, I can agree with that." Gato glared coldly down at Amuro from the back of the room. "Provided you don't develop any delusions about being our leader."

Amuro blinked at him in confusion. "I, ah..."

"I can read a Federation rank insignia. You're a Commander at the least, probably a Captain. God knows what you did to earn it." Gato's voice dripped with contempt, far beyond anything Johnny had shown. "Don't think I'll listen to a Federation dog who happens to lead his pack."

Christina found herself glancing at Amuro to see what he would say or do to such an obvious insult. After a few seconds of tense silence, it became obvious that Amuro was not going to dignify Gato's remarks with anything more than a slight narrowing of his eyes, and a tightening of his jawline.

"I think here it's safest to assume that every man is his own CO," Johnny said. It was hard to tell whether it was to placate Gato, or to agree with him. "Let's get a move on."

The tension in the room quietly deflated, although Shin looked distinctly dissatisfied with the current status quo. When Amuro stood and began moving toward the bridge's exit, Lowe close on his heels, the other pilots soon followed.

-x-x-x-

The trip down to the hangars was relatively long; the Pegasus-class was one of the larger Federation warship models, after all. It gave the pilots plenty of time to form off into groups and chat along the way.

Loran appeared to be growing increasingly dejected, which worried Christina. They had fallen in with each other, seemingly by accident, or perhaps compelled by a sense of comfort. "I'm not even a soldier! I only became a pilot by accident... why did I get chosen for this?"

"I know how you feel," Christina replied. "I'm just a test pilot... I hardly have any field experience with Mobile Suits. I always wondered how I'd handle myself as a full-time combatant, but this... isn't what I was expecting."

Christina and Loran were walking just behind Amuro, who seemed to know the ship's layout well enough to lead the way down. Finding his way seemed to call for concentration, so he had largely been silent during the trip. It was a little shock when he suddenly joined the conversation happening behind him.

"I don't think either of you should have to fight if you don't wish it," Amuro said. "That being may be able to put you here, but he doesn't have the right to make non-combatants take the field."

Christina quickened her pace a little to walk alongside him. "Well, that's very kind of you to say," she said, looking up at him to try and meet his eyes. "I'm just saying... I can see how someone like you could get picked for something like this. You're a commanding officer and obviously experienced. I don't understand why that 'Beyonder' would want a test pilot to begin with."

Amuro laughed, a sound that seemed to ease the feeling of distance about him. "Who knows? I've been thinking the same thing since I got here." The moment ended, and Christina felt a twinge of disappointment as he retreated back into his shell of formality. "Regardless, we're not a military unit. Don't worry about being forced into piloting against whatever's waiting for us out there."

"You're saying you'll protect us?" Loran asked.

"Ah... that makes it sound a little dramatic," Amuro said. "But it is a ridiculous situation for forcing people into piloting. There's plenty of non-combat roles that need filling. The bridge needs a skeleton crew, we'll need mechanics and someone seeing to practical issues like meal preparation and upkeep..." There was a pause, and Amuro frowned as if having a sudden, unwelcome thought. "Really, if you just wanted to strike out on your own, it should be allowed."

"I don't think I'd want to do that." Loran sound dismayed at the very thought. "I'm not a very good pilot, but I can cook and help with maintenance, I think."

"And you know what I said about mechanics before!" Lowe intruded upon the conversation with the subtlety of a rampaging rhinoceros.

Ed followed in his wake. "Yeah, keeping things running around here can't be much harder than it was back home."

Amuro laughed again, and Christina felt her outlook on the situation brightening just a bit. "I can keep an eye on the bridge, if nothing else. I'm fully systems trained and there should be some onboard documentation to help me catch up."

"Looks like we're settling into one happy family!" Ed grinned for a moment, then cast a less cheerful glance over one shoulder. "Except for those guys."

What was referring to was so painfully obvious that most of the group had avoided trying to comment on it. Just as quickly as Loran and Christina had fallen in together, the two Zeon pilots had quietly fallen behind and formed a triumvirate of sorts with Shin.

Amuro sighed. "Probably just having the Zeonic version of our conversation. There'll be trouble if they decide they don't want to deal with us."

"But they could just leave, couldn't they? I mean if they decided that they really didn't like us," Loran said.

"And join the enemy?" Ed snorted. "Yeah, great."

"We should probably try to keep everyone together for now," Christina said. "Even if it means... well, Captain, I've been meaning to ask you about that. Aren't you uncomfortable letting those officers see so much of the White Base? This ship's existence is still classified."

Amuro blinked at her in confusion for a moment. "... oh, yes, it is... well, given the circumstances, trying to protect military secrets seems a bit futile. I can't contact Feeration forces from here at all, and I don't think our Spacenoid friends will have any better luck finding Zeon. We can't hide it from them, and they've no one to report to."

Something about the Captain's explanation rang false to Christina. It halfway sounded like he was making it up on the spot, but it probably wasn't her place to correct him regarding the treatment of White Base. "If you're sure, Captain, but I still think we should keep an eye on them until we know what kind of forces we're engaging."

"There's only eight people on this ship. Keeping track of each other isn't exactly gonna be hard," Lowe said.

That sentiment was hard to argue with, and following it the Earth-bound half of the White Base group fell into silence. The soft voices of the two Zeon pilots and Shin, however, carried forward to the group for quite some time. They were just soft enough that it was impossible to know what was being discussed.

-x-x-x-

"MY G!" Lowe cried in joy as the doors of White Base's elevator car opened, and the hangar was revealed to the gathered pilots. He shoved his way past Loran and Christina and burst out into the hangar at a full run. It was hard to tell exactly which machine Lowe was referring to, as the hangar was at the moment a tangled mass of misplaced machinery.

The largest and heaviest of the machines was stored properly... or at least as properly as was possible given the hangar's capacity. Although it had the form of the Federation's Gundam, Christina could tell it was roughly ten meters taller than the specification documents she had read. Its height was such that it had to assume a slumped position to fit into its storage bay. The color scheme was different than the specification documents, darker and somehow more hard-edged, and a curious wing-like projection rose from its back.

Though shorter, an even more heavily built Gundam slumped against a wall, dragged down by the weight of an enormous bazooka attached to one arm and an enormous shield in the other. Its form and coloring conformed more closely to the Federation specifications Christina was familiar with, but compared to the RX-78 Gundam's design it was like some sort bestial metal ogre.

The other machines that filled the hangar were more on scale with each other, and more the size that Christina expected a Mobile Suit to be. They represented a riot of conflicting design senses, though, most aping the v-fin and twin eyed face of the Gundam in some fashion. A pair of slick units, one decorated with bright red plating against its white body, the other carrying a pair of enormous sword-like weapons on its back, slumped against each other in a tangled mass. Likewise, Christian spotted her own NT-1 ALEX Gundam slumped in a similar heap with a Zaku adorned with a gaudy red paint job. The last of the Gundams was a design that almost seemed like a cubist parody of the RX-78, slim and alien, with the v-fin lowered to cover the face almost like a mustache. It was the only of the machines standing up of its own accord, free of all the other machines.

Strewn haphazardly across the hangar floor between the elevator car and the bulk of the MS were a series of small jets. One looked much like the Core Fighter Christina had read about, but the other five were far more exotically shaped. They ate up a tremendous amount of floor space, and did not appear to be placed with any particular thought toward safety or accessibility.

"My poor Red Frame!" Lowe exclaimed, hugging the red-and-white machine's foot like it was a long-lost friend. "What'd they do to you!"

Shin snorted in disgust and began stalking toward the Core Fighter lookalike. Gato watched him carefully for a moment before departing in the direction of the heavy, ogrish Gundam.

"Sorry 'bout my Sword Calamity, Lowe," Edward said as he ambled out of the elevator. "Whoever teleported us here doesn't know how to use space... but man, check out all these Mobile Suits, huh?"

Lowe was too anxious to be much interested in looking around at the moment. "I'll be impressed when Red Frame isn't on the verge of twisting his knee out of joint! Come on, help me get these two apart."

The oddest-looking of the Gundams appeared to be Loran's, and he regarded it with an almost sad demeanor. "So you came here, too..."

"Whoever's suit has gotten amorous with my Zaku, I suggest we go separate them," Johnny announced.

Christina glowered at him. "That's an insulting way to ask for help, but I'll be along to help move the ALEX in a minute."

Johnny's sense of humor remained mercilessly dry as he headed toward his custom machine. "Don't dawdle too long. Fraternization with the enemy is a court martial offense."

Christina gritted her teeth and simply let him go, before she shouted something she would regret at his back. Instead, she turned to glance at Amuro, who had remained behind the others.

She gestured toward the tremendous Gundam, slumped in its storage bay. "Captain... is that one really yours?"

Amuro nodded, though he seemed a bit dismayed. "Yes. Gundam model, designation nu."

"It's... Captain, I don't understand this at all, there are no notes about something like this existing in the V Project specifications. The engineering alone would be--" 

Amuro interrupted her, though gently. "Lieutenant MacKenzie-- Christina. I swear, when the time is right I will explain everything to you. Just, right now... I think it could be very dangerous for everyone involved."

Christina blinked at him, intrigued and slightly terrified by the sudden seriousness of his tone. "You mean the Zeon...?"

"Yes. Lieutenant Gato may end up causing enough trouble on his own. I'd rather not... complicate the situation any further. I don't want anyone to get hurt here."

Christina felt, perhaps for the first time since she'd met him, that Amuro was finally being completely sincere. It put most of her other fears to rest, at least for the time being. "Yes, sir. Then no more questions from me... but try to be more careful. You've been acting a little strange up to now."

Amuro laughed, if weakly. "A little of that comes naturally, but I'll do my best. For now, though, why don't we get to work with the others?"

"Yes, sir," Christina said, sounding and feeling more like herself than she had for the past few hours.

TO BE CONTINUED...

-x-x-x-

NOTES:

Anavel Gato is, of course, the antagonist of Gundam 0083, and the he's brought the GP-02 along with him.

Just to make the other unit assignments crystal clear: 

Amuro Ray's machine is the RX-93 nu Gundam.

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson has his signature Sword Calamity.

Lowe Gear brings his own Astray Red Frame.

Christina MacKenzie has her test unit, the Gundam NT-1 ALEX.

Johnny Ridden was assigned his famous custom Zaku.

Shin Asuka has the various parts of Impulse, including all of the basic Silhouettes.

Finally, Loran Cehack has his own Turn-A Gundam.   



	4. Chapter 4

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base's enemies begin awakening on their own ship. Faction lines are drawn as struggle for power begins.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-x-x-x-

Flay Allster had drifted to sleep on Earth peacefully, dreaming of Sai and her father and a life that had fallen to pieces along with Heliopolis. She did not dream of her new lover, Kira Yamato, for his terrifying rise from soft-spoken geek to the terror of the battlefield was emblematic of the waking world that she hated so much. Every morning where she found herself on the Archangel was a lingering bitterness.

Today, she did not awaken on that magnificent ship. She could tell from the moment that she opened her eyes that she had somehow been misplaced. She was on a different ship, one with clinically clean grey steel walls, but it was not her ship. The room she was in was wide and rectangular, lined with spartan couches that were padded without being comfortable. Low tables filled the center, marking it as some sort of lounge.

This new ship felt surreal compared to the Archangel Flay knew. Everything was boxier and felt more cramped. A mechanical hum filled the background, just barely loud enough to be audible; the Archangel ran silently. It alarmed and disoriented her. She sat up quickly; somehow she had been dressed in her new pink Alliance uniform, complete with the tight, dark miniskirt and pale green leggings she liked.

A glance around the room confirmed that Flay was not alone. Even worse, all of her companions were utterly unfamiliar men. Fear seized her in place of the curiosity she might have once felt. The other people in the room, one by one, began to stir.

The first was a young-looking man whose good looks were impossible to miss, a soft and boyish face crowned by immaculately arranged hair the color of lilacs. He wore a uniform Flay could not begin to recognize, well-tailored dull green heaped with flashy gold embroidery. The front of the closed jacket formed a pattern that made Flay think of an eagle with wings outstretched.

"Where am I...?" he mumbled as he began to sit up. 

She tried to edge away from him, only to find that another stranger was closer to her than she thought. He jerked upwards violently as she nudged into him. His movements were so swift that he was peering down at Flay before she could fully utter a yelp of surprise.

Flay tried not to stare at him, but it was hard not to. He was tall and gangly and muscular in all the wrong ways, with coarse, sharp features and a long, hawkish nose. His eyes seemed beady and cruel, and his shock of red-orange hair stood up on the top of his head like a rooster's comb, before falling away into a stringy mullet.

He was dressed in civilian clothing, the colors brilliant purples and reds that spoke both of money and profoundly low tastes. This stranger, in fact, looked like nothing so much as a criminal to Flay, and the way he looked her over up and down was unbearable. "Heh. Now how'd you get in here?"

Flay's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, before she found the will to voice words. "-- who are you? Is this your ship?"

The ugly stranger rose to his feet with a grin. "Guess I asked the wrong question. Pretty slick trick to move me without waking me up..."

The handsome stranger was also on his feet, and spoke to his evil-looking counterpart with courage that seemed foolhardy to Flay. "I don't know how you abducted me from the Gaw, but if you're hoping for a ransom, you'll be sorely disappointed. My father knows I'd rather die than be used as a pawn to dishonor my family!"

The ugly one laughed, a shrill and wild sound. "That so? I'll remember it if I ever decide to kidnap you, rich boy!"

The mocking response deflated the handsome one's pride soundly. "-- you didn't-- then someone abducted both of us--"

"And the cute thing here. Someone's got pretty interesting taste, huh?"

Flay's growing sense of indignity brought her to her feet, despite her fears. She spared the ugly man one of her haughtiest, most withering glances. "I have a name, you know."

"I imagine we all have names, and introductions might be in order." The new speaker was much younger than the other two men, much closer to Flay's own age. His features were fine to the point of being somewhat feminine, but he still had a soft sort of cuteness to him. His hair was a darker shade of purple, pulled tightly back with only a few soft strings and long sideburns flowing loose. He was also wearing civilian clothes, fashionable and flamboyant down to a gold-studdent jacket, that only enhanced his air of femininity.

"I am Olba Frost," the boy began, as if to set an example. Although his demeanor was gentle, something about it chilled Flay's spine. "And you are?"

Flay took the opportunity to back away from the others a few paces. "Flay Allster."

"... none of you recognize me? Me, Garma Zabi, of the Principality of Zeon?" the handsome stranger spoke with an incredulous sigh. One gloved hand reached up to twirl part of his bangs nervously.

"Michelo Chariot, top bravo of Neo-Italy," the ugly, hawkish man grinned. "Somethin' tells me we're all pretty far from home... wanna explain, kid?"

"I wish I could," Olba said with a small, apologetic shrug. "But I'm afraid I'm at a loss as to where we are, as well... or how we came to be here. All I can say is that we are not alone, and I am most curious as to why we were brought together."

Garma brushed himself off meticulously, then paused to straighten the fringe on his uniform. After that he seemed able to assume an air of confidence. "I can promise you, this isn't a Zeonic carrier. That must mean we're hostages of the Federation."

Olba's polite smile widened, and took on a bemused air. "Really? Are you certain?"

"Who's the Federation?" Flay asked.

Garma looked at the two teenagers, first in confusion, and then with a certain air of self-righteousness. "The Earth Federation! You can't possibly have missed that there's a war going on..." 

"Not where I'm from," Olba said with a sad smile.

"And we're fighting ZAFT," Flay added with an imperious sniff.

"I don't know about you guys, but there's nobody on earth or in space who'd want me as a hostage," Michelo said. "I figure there's somebody wants a job done and decided to grab who he could. All I've gotta do is decide if I feel like doing it, or if I'm gonna kick his head off instead."

Olba's eyes shifted toward the door. A second later, it opened with a pneumatic hiss. "Perhaps that's our host now?"

Their 'host', if Olba was indeed right, was a striking figure in a white and gold costume that resembled a uniform, but no identifiable markings of rank. He was tall, though not quite so tall as Michelo, with spectrally pale skin and smooth, almost unnaturally perfect features. His hair was a softer and paler shade of violet than Garma's, and his eyes were startlingly bright and icy shade of blue.

"Ah, I've been expecting you." The voice that emerged from him was somehow unsettling. While not accented, there was something forced and unnatural about his conversational tone, as if it was merely an adept mimicry. 

Garma seemed to recognize the stranger's clothing, or at least thought he did. "... Federation!" He spat the name like a curse. "I was right!" 

Michelo grinned eagerly. "That so?"

Flay found herself struck speechless, and suddenly frightened. There was an air around the stranger, a kind of charisma, so overwhelming she felt she might drown in it if she regarded him for too long.

Her eyes strayed toward Olba, who was regarding the newcomer with almost predatory intensity from behind his gentle, half-lidded eyes. A sound of deep thought hummed softly in his throat.

The stranger smiled, regarding Garma with unmistakable amusement. "I assure you, this has nothing to do with the Federation."

"Nevermind that." Michelo strode forward, hands buried deep in his pockets, but with an unmistakable air of violence in his posture. "What's this about expecting us?"

The stranger was not intimidated, and his polite manner did not waver. "I was informed there would be others. Is that a problem?"

Remarkably, Michelo backed down, though with a diffident shrug. "Just curious."

"Of course. My name is Paptimus Scirocco, and I am sure I will learn your names in due time. Follow me, and I will be able to provide a complete explanation." Scirocco stepped out into the hallway, gesturing for the others to follow.

Refusal, given the circumstances, was impossible. The four of them quietly filed out into the hallway behind their strange host, into a hallway that was white and pristine in the sterile manner of a spaceship.

He did not lead them very far, into a room that was really only a few dozen feet down the hallway. Like the lounge and hallway, it was perfect and lifelessly clean, with a touch of military efficiency. Rows of padded chairs faced a wide screen on the opposite wall, with a small desk and chair sitting next to the screen. A control panel was set into the desk's surface, presumably to control the screen.

Scirocoo approached the desk, assuming an air of leadership and command with gracious ease. "First of all, let me welcome you all aboard my ship, the Dogos Gear."

Olba took a seat in the front row, as if he had been invited to do so. "Even what little I have seen is most impressive, sir." 

Scirocco nodded to Olba in thanks for the polite if meaningless compliment, and eased into the chair behind his desk. "First, I imagine you would like to see where 'here' is." He reached down to the desk and pressed a few buttons. Moments later the the wide screen came to life, showing a panoramic view of grassy, rolling hills, and a mountain range off in the distance. The horizon was decorated by the outline of a large, unnatural structure.

The longer Flay looked at it, the more resembled a jagged and broken piece of a tubular colony like Heliopolis. The sight brought a wave of familiar nausea rising out of her stomach. "... w-we can't be on Earth... are we?"

Michelo had leaned up against one of the side walls, and seemed bored by the view. "Means nothing to me."

"A shattered colony on the Earth... hardly an unusual sight, sir. It certainly offers nothing in way of explanation," Olba's tone was almost apologetic, but also smug.

It chilled Flay to the bone, her confusion starting to become panic. "There's nothing like that on Earth!" 

"While you make me very curious to know the conditions of your home," Scirocco said, with an apologetic nod to Olba, "the young lady is correct. This is not Earth at all."

Olba seemed to struggle not to betray confusion or surprise. "Oh? I must ask how such a thing is possible, sir... or how you could possess such information."

"It's a ridiculous lie!" Garma shouted. "No colony could be this big! Do you expect us to believe you Feddies have discovered some other planet?"

Scirocco continued to smile. "Watch this." He tapped a few more buttons, and the exterior view faded. It was replaced by something quite different.

A crisp starfield image filled the Dogos Gear's main screen. A voice, masculine and yet oddly alien, spoke over the void. "Greetings, pilots. As you have just learned, your world is not the only one that exists."

"Pilots...?" Flay murmured.

"You are all aware of quantum mechanics, aren't you? For every possibility that might be true, there exists some universe where it is true. Just as you are one of those possibilities, so am I," the voice continued.

Horror began to creep over Garma's face. "Our... universe? You're trying to tell me we're in another universe?"

Olba leaned forward, betraying excitement. "Facinating."

"You cannot comprehend precisely who I am, but suffice to say that I exist in a form that is beyond anything your existence has allowed you to experience before," the voice continued. "I have grown interested in the ways in which all of you fight to bring order and achieve mastery to your own worlds. I have brought you here so that I might see a closer demonstration of your skill, free of the bonds of history."

Michelo snickered audibly from his far corner of the room.

Garma ignored it, suddenly nearly beside himself with excitement. "The Zabi family's fight for justice has attracted the attention of a being from another dimension! Wait until sister Kycilia hears..."

"As you can see from the ship's instruments, this is a chaotic world. It has no leaders and no organization, and will surely descend into barbarism unless mastered. The masses here are ignorant of their plight, frightened and aimless. Simply ruling is no small feat for your kind, so I have prepared an obstacle you must overcome to prove your worthiness.

You will recognize them when you confront them... a roving band of vigilantes, who will do little to truly improve the lot of the people while ignorantly opposing any attempt to seize power. Make this force surrender to you, or wipe it from the face of my Earth, and I will personally reward your victory in any way you desire. suitable manner. After that, you may return to your own worlds... or do anything else you wish.

If necessary, you will be able to enter combat with the machines you are most familiar with, which I have stored for you in the Dogos Gear's hangars. All of the things you need to make them work properly, such as ammunition and Extended life support systems, have been provided." 

The voice's revelations rolled over the handful of those assembled, who could only listen in fascinated silence. Scirocco watched them with animated interest, but all were too absorbed in the Beyonder's pronouncements to notice.

"I have judged Paptimus Scirocco most fit for command among the lot of you at the present time, and hope you will work well under his command," The voice finished. "If you doubt my judgement on this matter... you may choose to prove me wrong, if you think you can."

TO BE CONTINUED...

NOTES:

Flay Allster, one of the most profoundly confused and troubled characters ever to appear in Gundam, is from Gundam SEED.

Garma Zabi is, of course, from First Gundam.

Michelo Chariot is a recurring villain (of sorts) from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. As he only has one significant speaking appearance in G Gundam, his personality here is a logical extrapolation of sorts based on that.

Olba Frost is one of Gundam X's most dangerous antagonists, and one of Gundam's most unsettling characters.

Paptimus Scirocco's reputation surely preceeds him as the ultimate villain of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.


	5. Chapter 5

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Two newcomers to the Dogos Gear upset its already delicate balance of power. Garma Zabi experiences a horrible revelation, and new schemes are hatched.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-x-x-x-

As the recording shut off, the eyes of the others in the room turned toward Scirocco. He smiled back at them, clearly awaiting reactions.

Garma's was predictable. "Paptimus Scirocco? The Jupiterian?" He sneered in Scirocco's face. "You surely don't expect a son of the Zabi family to take orders from some Federation dog."

Likewise, so was Olba's reaction. He leaned back in his chair and seemed more interested in watching the others than saying anything for or against the prospect of Scirocco's leadership, or the Beyonder's challenge to them.

Flay's first thought was self-preservation. "There's been a mistake! I'm not a pilot, I shouldn't be here. It must've been... Kira, he must have wanted Kira, he'd belong here..."

"Our host made a lot of mistakes, it seems," Garma snorted.

Michelo was typically brusque. "Huh! Zabi, Federation... whatever, I don't care! That crap about "order for the people" was pure cheese. Someone wants these other guys' skulls cracked and wants to bribe us to do it."

Scirocco seemed to take everything said in, digesting it thoroughly, before he began his own responses. "Garma Zabi, if I remember correctly... I believe it would do you well to leave that kind of reasoning behind." Scirocco seemed to have more to say, but Garma had little interest in letting him finish.

"What exactly do you mean by that, Scirocco? Even with the White Devil on your side, Zeon won't surrender!" He shouted defiantly.

Michelo rolled his eyes. "Keh. Calm down, Zabi. Nobody here gives a damn about Zeon or whatever."

"Exactly," Scirocco smoothly picked up the line of argument and began developing it. "This is a new world. This is no place for old vendettas here, not with a more immediate threat before us. For now, we should work together."

Garma sputtered. "Dammit, Scirocco... you almost sound like Char." Something about that statement almost seemed to make Scirocco twitch, but Garma was oblivious to it. "Fine, you've half a point... for now."

The moment Garma backed down, Michelo went on the offensive. "Working together is one thing. Don't get too comfortable with this 'Beyonder'  
declaring you leader, though." He poked Scirocco in the shoulder with a long finger to emphasize his point.

Scirocco seemed to be composing a reply when a new voice that emerged from the doorway. "Still, we must put our differences aside for now, don't you agree?" the speaker said as he strode into the room.

The voice was deep and masculine, and matched the strong features and tall, well-built frame of its owner. His dark purple hair was cut short, and arranged with great artifice to appear slightly mussed and casual. Both the cut of his jacket and something about his face reminded Flay, curiously, of Olba.

In fact, Olba seemed to be the only person in the room not surprised by the newcomer's abrupt entrance. Instead he smiled widely. "Brother." There was something like adoration in his voice as he spoke.

Scirocco watched the exchange with a quick glance, then moved to capitalize on it. "Then we are all in agreement! Aren't we, Mister...?" Scirocco trailed off artfully, indicating that it was time for the newcomer to introduce himself.

"Shagia Frost," He nodded. Now that Flay knew of the formal connection between the two, she couldn't stop seeing eerie similarities in their faces and mannerisms. It grew worse when Shagia went to his brother's side, standing slightly behind him. "Good work finding them so quickly. I managed to get myself... lost."

Olba's eyes trailed to the room's entrance curiously, and Shagia's followed with a certain hint of smugness. Flay hadn't been able to stop herself from watching them, and followed with a glance of her own. Sure enough, it opened a moment later, and another stranger entered the room. Her eyes flew wide in surprise. How much else did the Frosts know about the situation, without being inclined to share?

"Peacemaker, Scirocco? Unusual role for you," the newcomer said.

Scirocco jerked his head up noticeably at the voice, unpleasant surprise breaking his facade of refinement. "... you."

The latest addition to the Dogos Gear's motley crew was commandingly tall, in the way of Shagia and Scirocco, but perhaps with a more perfectly formed, handsomer build. His chiseled features radiated charisma and health, as did the blond hair that fell in locks to frame his dark glasses. He was wearing what appeared to be a red uniform jacket, customized by tearing the sleeves off, over flatteringly tight black pants and heavy boots. He reminded Flay of her father, in a way she couldn't quite make sense of.

"Isn't this quite the cabal," he muttered, as she strode toward the center of the room.

"Quattro Baijinas." As Scirocco spoke the name, a strained grin spread across his face. "I should have expected you."

Garma, like most everyone else in the room but Olba, had taken to his feet as the Beyonder's shocking message played on the forward screen. Now he twisted to face the newcomer, blinking in confusion and surprised. "That voice..."

The selection the Beyonder had made conspired to leave Garma Zabi the shortest adult male in the room. Surrounded as he was by Michelo, Scirocco, and Shagia, his body must have become invisible from the door. Only after taking a few steps into the room and hearing him speak did Quattro look in his direction, his face suddenly draining of color as he glanced Garma's way.

Garma's reaction was quite the opposite. His face lit up with joy. "Char!"

"Garma..." Quattro muttered, voice mechanical.

The two of them had suddenly become the center of attention in the room. Shagia's eyebrow seemed to raise fractionally with each name uttered. Michelo appeared on the verge of laughter.

"So many names," Olba said, with stiletto-sharp innocence in his voice. "Which ones are we to use?"

Quattro struggled to compose himself. "...Quattro. Quattro Baijinas... He knows me." He gestured at Scirocco with one gloved hand.

"Indeed I do," Scirocco grinned wolfishly, as his eyes traveled from Garma to Quattro.

"It seems everyone does," Shagia observed dryly.

"Quattro?" Garma tested the name on his tongue and did not seem to find it to his liking. "Char, what are you saying?"

"You've... mistaken me for someone else, Zabi," Quattro spoke quietly. "Char Aznable is dead... just like you're supposed to be."

Garma stared at Quattro in utter disbelief. "Char, this is preposterous! Just because you're not wearing your helmet doesn't mean I can't recognize you! We went to the Academy together-- we just talked a few ours ago! You're not dead and neither am I, and I wish you would end this ridiculous farce and tell me what was going on!" The indignity in Garma's voice rose with new exclamation.

Flay found herself having to stifle a little laughter. Garma had seemed slightly ridiculous to her from the start, but now he sounded like nothing so much as a jilted girlfriend.

Scirocco also seemed to be finding great amusement in the situation. "But Garma, this is a Federation uniform, if you have not yet noticed the uniform. When did Char Aznable ever favor the Federation?" Flay could not quite picture Scirocco addressing a small child, but if he did, he would probably use the tone he was using with Garma at the moment.

This jibe was obvious enough that it was not lost on poor Garma. "I'm not stupid, Scirocco!"

Scirocco strode toward Garma and laid a hand on his shoulder, a perfect mockery of a comforting gesture. His face became soft and suspiciously sympathetic. "No, not stupid at all, my dear Garma Zabi. You're just... behind the times. You see, Captain Baijinas and I are from the year UC 0087, where it is widely known that both Garma Zabi and Char Aznable died during the One Year War."

Quatrro watched suspiciously for a moment, but then began playing along. He noded grimly. "Both killed in action together, as I recall."

Scirocco continued elaborating, obviously enjoying himself. "Yes, by the Federation's infamous White Base. I could hardly believe that Char Aznable would fall before the White Devil, but that is what history records for us."

Garma began to look faintly like he might cry. What Scirocco told him was impossible in a conventional sense, and even in light of the Beyonder's bewildering speech he seemed unable to accept it. "Y-you're lying! It has to be a lie... a trick! Char and I would never lose to... those Federation dogs..." He wound one finger in his hair savagely, with a trembling hand.

"Now, now," Olba said soothingly. "Do remember what our host told us. There are so many worlds... and our host's power is infinite. It is not impossible that Captain Baijinas and Mister Scirocco are indeed from your future, or at least a world very like yours." Although Olba simply told the truth, so far as anyone could comprehend it at least, his gentle tone made the facts somehow more cruel.

Scirocco nodded, his expression going sensitive. "I'm afraid it's the truth. I know it must be difficult to accept knowledge of such a terrible fate... I'll give you a moment." Scirocco turned his hand on Garma's shoulder into a pat on the back, and discreetly began to move away from him. Scirocco grinned broadly at Quattro as he moved across the room, and Quattro did not grin back.

Michelo gave a snort of amusement, as the soap opera brought itself to a close at Garma's expense. "Cute, but... Baijinas, you know the score?"

"Largely," Quattro responded with a twitch.

"Anyways, I believe you we should examine our Mobile Suits and determine our fighting strength. Shall I lead everyone to the hangar?" Scirocco asked, Garma now apparently invisible to him.

"An excellent suggestion," Shagia agreed, hands deep in pockets.

Garma was too caught up in his own personal trauma to move past it just yet. "White Base... the Trojan Horse. They killed Char and... and..." He looked up toward Quattro and Scirocco, voice plaintive. What about my sister? And brother Dozel? They had to--"

"They're dead, Garma!" Quattro shouted, his voice suddenly vicious. "All dead!"

Even Shagia seemed surprised by that sudden outburst. He took a step forward, eyes narrowed. "Calm yourself, Mr. Baijinas. We're all allies here."

Quattro inhales sharply, and then noded to Shagia. "For now."

Scirocco glanced from Garma to Quattro, and then nodded in agreement with Shagia. His own face had reverted to the calm porcelain of earlier in the day. "Indeed. One must not let their emotions rule them."

Quattro adjusted his shades and changed the subject. "Come on. I need to check on my Hyaku Shiki... if our host through to bring it, anyway."

"Mobile Suits?" Michelo sniffed in disdain. "Let's see what we've got." He didn't sound hopeful.

Scirocco started toward the doors, with Michelo, Quattro, and Shagia in tow. He paused for a moment at the door and glanced back at the others who weren't following him. Garma was lost in his own mind, Olba remained placidly in his chair, and he seemed to be noticing Flay's presence for the first time.

"My brother is a capable pilot, but he takes little interest in Mobile Suits otherwise," Shagia said. "I would appreciate it if you let him remain behind."

"Very well," Scirocco said, sounding slightly distracted. He turned a bit at the door, to better address Flay. "And what about you, Miss Allster?"

Flay's self-defense instincts kicked in. Walking into the hangar alone with that group of men seemed to be roughly as wise as wandering into a pack of wolves. She allowed her voice to take on a suitably feminine softness. "Someone should stay here with poor Mr. Zabi."

Scirocco's dubious expression became a wry smile. "Yes, perhaps they should. I may have questions for you later, though... do take care."

With that the group of older men left them behind, with little more from a leering glance from Michelo as he departed. Shagia was calm, and Quattro seemed ready to turn rising ire on Scirocco as they exited the door.

"You own Mobile Suits older than her," Quattro said once they were in the hallway.

"That's rich coming from you," Scirocco replied.

The only sound that followed that was Michelo's snigger.

-x-x-x-

Back in the briefing room, all was quiet save for the sound of Garma's breathing, heavy and ragged in the manner of someone trying to hold back tears. One gloved hand covered his eyes and his hair was quite nearly in ruin.

Flay saw her opening, and moved in with a faultless display of sympathy prepared. "Mr. Zabi, I just can't get over how awfully everyone is treating you..." She knelt demurely next to him, producing a handkerchief from one of the uniform jacket's pockets.

"if it's true..." Garma sniffed, voice shaking. "If it's true, then I'll find some way to fix it once I go back. The Zabi family won't... won't die in failure and dishonor. I'll find some way to save Sister and Char, and Zeon will rise again!" He finished with an outpouring of conviction before he reached for Flay's handkerchief. "And thank you."

Olba rose from his chair and moved toward the two of them. "You have enormous conviction, Mr. Zabi. I can respect that."

Garma seemed to regain his composure in light of an audience that was apparently more polite and respectful than the older men he dealt with before. "I thank you. But it's not just determination. I'm a son of the Zabi family, and live or die, my name must go down in glory." He seemed to settle himself, and then looked toward the briefing room's door. "Miss Allster, Mister Frost... we shouldn't let ourselves get left behind." He handed the handkerchief back to Flay.

"Oh, I guess..." Flay said. Her tone made it very clear that following the others to the hangar was not at all something she wanted to do.

"Miss Allster?" Garma asked again, puzzled.

"Well, it's just... I don't feel very safe around those men. I mean, I'm sure your brother is a nice person, Olba..."

Olba's gracious smile became a shrewd one. "Oh, Miss Allster, how pleased I am to hear you say that. In all honesty, I doubt my Brother trusts them, either. He always keeps me safe from the most dangerous things."

"Yes... this is a dangerous situation. That Michelo, that Scirocco... and here we are trapped with them." Garma scowled in frustration, appreciating his situation for the first time.

"I was just wondering..." Flay asked, twisting the handkerchief in her hands with apparent anxiety. "Mr. Zabi, I don't know if you could find it, since this ship isn't exactly one you'd be familiar with... but if we could just find something to defend ourselves with, I'd feel so much safer..."

"A weapons cache, you mean?" Olba asked. "Miss Allster, you are a marvel. I was just thinking that very thing."

Put in the position of protecting a damsel in distress, Garma reacted exactly as Flay had hoped. "I can make promises, but there are certain constants in ship design... if the Beyonder saw fit to put any small arms here, I can certainly help you find them."

"Oh... really, Mr. Zabi?" Flay's face bloomed into a hopeful smile. "Oh, you don't know how much that means to me..."

Olba watched Flay twist Garma Zabi effortlessly around her finger with words and smiles, and his mind wandered back to his brother's. Brother, she's exactly as you guessed. How impressive! I never would have thought her so dangerous, but..

Shagia's thoughts, even over the distance of the ship, came back to him clearly. Of course, my adorable little brother. You are still innocent about women, but I've seen her type before. Rest assured, she is the most dangerous thing on this ship.

#And the others?# Olba thought eagerly. #Those two men... both real Newtypes!#

#Both will be difficult, but the girl may help us there. They are both strong men, but as you saw, even the strongest men have weaknesses to exploit.# Shagia's thoughts were firm.

#And after all, we only need one of them. The other can be disposed of...# Olba's thoughts continued at a frenzied pace.

#Patience. First, we must know if the Beyonder saw fit to place a duplicate of that most wonderful thing on the moon. If he has, then...#

#We will be the winners of this little war,# Olba finished.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Shagia Frost is, of course, the other half of Gundam X's famous villain duo. He and his brother demonstrate their unusual telepathic abilities in that series, and their fixation with-- and ability to detect-- Newtypes.

Quattro Baijinas is the mysterious mentor from Zeta Gundam. Whether or not Garma is as deluded as Scirocco made him sound will be made clear in the future. If you've seen Zeta, it should already be clear.

If you're familiar with the C.D.A. manga sidestory, or Zeta Gundam's backstory, you know exactly why Scirocco finds Quattro's attitude toward Flay so humorous.

"That thing" on the moon will be explained in the text eventually, but if you've seen Gundam X, you may already be able to guess at the Frost Brothers's plan.


	6. Chapter 6

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The crew of the Dogos Gear take stock of the weapons at their disposal, while new sources of strength are discovered lurking inside the ship. 

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Flay and Olba followed Garma through the halls of the Dogos Gear, both quietly hoping that Garma actually knew where he was going. While he conducted himself with confidence, Flay suspected that Garma was the sort of person who made titanic mistakes with all the confidence of a master general.

He came to a stop in front of a sliding double-door, indicating an unusually spacious room beyond. "Were this a Zeon ship," Garma stated, "this is where the armory would be. Of course, we would keep it locked and guarded..."

"But perhaps our 'Beyonder' is going to be more open with us?" Olba asked.

"Unless Scirocco got to it first and locked it," Garma said.

Flay stepped forward, to experimentally touch the doors. Anything unlocked on the Archangel would open automatically if someone approached just in front of it, so perhaps this would be a way to see if they were going to get lucky. Sure enough, the doors slid open.

The room that lay beyond was dark, its only light coming from the gleam of the computer monitors that surrounded the central feature of the room: a raised platform, where three faintly-lit glass-topped metal domes sat. Each was large, easily big enough for a person to crawl inside and curl up in. The attached computers seemed to be monitoring something, or at least set up for monitoring: numbers and inscrutable sine waves danced across the screens.

Flay stopped and stared at the strange device she had uncovered, baffled. Olba merely cast a hopeful glance up at Garma, but his jaw had dropped open in surprise and disbelief. Whatever they had found, it was not what they were looking for.

Flay approached the raised dais the machines sat upon, and carefully glanced into the nearest dome. "... what... what kind of thing is this..."

The glass dome did indeed contain a person, a girl about Flay's own age, who lay asleep on a great red cushion. She was dressed in a plain white shift, her short honey-blonde hair trailing over her closed eyelids. Her body was curled in a fetal position, seemingly oblivious to the world around her.

"Flay?" Olba asked.

"... there's someone in here," she said.

Olba and Garma approached, and their reactions were roughly as dumbfounded as Flay's.

"Should we wake her up?" Flay asked.

Olba's demeanor had grown somewhat more guarded after spotting the girl. "I don't know... we should be careful. The machines could be keeping her asleep as part of a medical procedure."

"Or as part of some cruel experiment." Garma seemed to be growing indignant over the sleeping girl's strange glass cage, perhaps sensing a chance to be chivalrous. "If so, we are bound by honor to set her free."

"Well, we won't learn anything if we just leave her there. Let's see if we can figure out how to wake her up," Flay said.

Their attempts to figure out how the sleeping machine worked was chaotic at best. Olba moved to the bank of computers and studied the readouts intently, as if trying to reverse-engineer its function from the readout. Flay begin looking for drawers or filing cabinets to ransack for documentation.

Garma remained pragmatically at the sleeping girl's side, and tried tapping and knocking on the glass door above her. At first it had no effect, as if she couldn't hear, but as he began beating on the dome, he could see her eyelids begin to flutter.

His cry of triumph alerted the others. Flay returned, clasping a manila folder stuffed with documents; Olba merely stepped away from the computer screens. He didn't seem very happy with Garma's blunt and direct method of waking up the mysterious girl, who looked up at them with wide-eyed complacency.

Flay's folder appeared to contain some instructions for operating the mysterious machine, if very basic ones. It required only a few taps on the keypad located on the mystery girl's pod to get the glass top to slide upwards, like a hatch. 

"Where's Neo?" the girl asked.

Olba, Flay, and Garma exchanged some uncomfortably blank stares, as they searched for signs of recognition in the others. Finally, Flay stepped forward to give the girl an answer. "Neo's... not here right now." She smiled as she spoke, the perfectly sweet demeanor she reserved for dealing with Kira and very small children.

The girl seemed disappointed by this answer, but she accepted it readily. "Sting and Auel?"

This elicited another round of blank stares and uncomfortable glances. "Could you... explain 'Sting and Auel' to us?" Olba asked.

"Stellar's brothers..." she said, with a tiny frown.

Garma immediately glanced to the side. "The other pods..."

Olba stepped aside to examine each of them. He seemed disappointed when he returned to the others. "They're empty. I'm afraid the Beyonder did not see fit to give us 'Sting' or 'Auel'... only Miss 'Stellar'."

Stellar's eyes widened in dismay, but Flay spoke up before she could grow any more agitated. "... they went with Neo!" she said.

A person of average intelligence would easily realize she'd made that up on the spot, but Stellar was far easier to persuade. Her frown grew less tiny, but she nodded. That was apparently all the explanation she expected.

"What now?" Stellar asked. She looked expectantly up at Flay, and only at Flay, a detail missed by no one. It suggested that Stellar might be from Flay's world, and more specifically, Flay's Earth Alliance.

"We're... going to look for them!" Flay said, after a moment to try and figure out the best way to get Stellar behaving something like a normal human being.

"Neo is lost?" Stellar asked.

"Yes... many of our friends are lost, but you can help us find them," Flay said. Her voice grew warm as she felt out the role she needed to play for Stellar, something not too far from what you'd need to deal with a toddler. "You'll help us, won't you?"

"Stellar will help," she nodded. She righted herself in the sleeping pod, sitting up on her knees and reaching out for Flay's arm. Flay toppled forward at the unexpected motion, and the other girl's unexpected strength. With her arms full of papers, it was only an uncertain moment before she toppled into the pod alongside Stellar.

Stellar turned her head and blinked at Flay, heedless of how high her shift's hemline had risen. "Name?" She poked at Flay's shoulder, to indicate which name she needed.

"Nnn... Flay! My name is Flay," she managed, trying to push herself up into a more dignified position, one that would strain her mini-skirt's ability to cover her body a bit less.

She glared over one shoulder at Garma and Olba. In short order, both men introduced themselves to Stellar, who simply nodded at them. "Flay's friends."

Olba smiled as he watched Flay first struggle to get herself out of the pod, and then struggle more with Stellar's sleepy reflexes. "'Ariel' and 'Sleeping Beauty'... how strange that the Beyonder should bring a pair of lovely princesses to the battlefield."

"Neither Miss Allster nor Miss Stellar are very warlike... we need to check the ship more thoroughly. For all we know there are more civilians hidden away on it," Garma said. His expression was grim, in a way that didn't suit his face. "That Feddie dog had plenty of time to do this himself. Why didn't he?"

"Mr. Scirocco seems the type of man most interested in machines," Olba said. "Perhaps he never saw fit to leave the hangar before finding us."

Garma merely frowned in frustration. "Dammit... why is Char sucking up to him? It makes no sense... he must have some sort of plan. Char is certainly no traitor."

Flay had managed to get Stellar standing on the floor, although this just begged the uncomfortable question of whether or not the Beyonder had remembered to bring her any clothes. "Well, whatever is going to happen, we need to stick together," Flay said, trying to compose herself. "I just wish the people in command didn't seem so... oh, I don't know..."

"Suspicious?" Olba supplied with a smile.

Flay smiled just a bit at Olba. "That's one word you could use, though I didn't want to be rude... and, well, with that awful gangster Michelo on board, I was really a little scared."

Stellar's eerily blank face suddenly blossomed into a smile. "Stellar will take care of Flay." She draped herself over one of Flay's arms as she spoke, much to Flay's consternation.

Garma couldn't think of any graceful reaction to this other than pretending to ignore it, and hoping his flush wasn't coloring his cheeks unbecomingly. "You're both speaking what I think we're all thinking. We need to do something about Michelo and Scirocco."

"If there's anything we can do..." Flay spoke distractedly, as she tried to encourage Stellar not to lean on her so heavily.

"There are ways to protect oneself, even from such terrifying persons," Olba said. His voice was laden with meaning, hinting that he knew of just such a way they could use. "We simply need to be very careful."

"We just need to keep looking for weapons," Garma nodded. "You girls don't need to worry. That Federation dog won't be so strong without that beast at his side. We simply need to find where he keeps his weapons... somewhere he can reach them easily, as brother Dozel does..."

"I would certainly feel safer knowing where that was." Flay simply gave up on trying to extricate herself from Stellar's grasp.

"Then let's continue," Olba said. "I'm sure Miss Stellar would be willing to accompany us."

Stellar nodded happily, but Flay looked a bit more dismayed. "Alright, but... you two wait outside for a minute." Garma blinked at Flay blankly after she spoke, which made it difficult for Flay not to glower at him in frustration. "Stellar is not walking around the ship in a hospital gown!"

Garma began moving rapidly toward the door, suddenly realizing his faux pas. "Oh... yes, of course not. We'll be just outside, won't we, Olba?"

Olba's mysterious smile had returned to his face at some point in the exchange, and it remained there as he followed Garma outside. "Of course."

-X-X-X-

The hangar echoed with the footsteps of the four men who had gone there to survey the Dogos Gear's machine strength. It was far emptier than it should be, designed as it was to accommodate a tremendous force of Mobile Suits and soldiers. Now, only eight machines stood there in one distant corner, each neatly resting in one of the hangar slots.

Michelo has somehow gotten to his machine far before the others. His Gundam was frustratingly plain, white with dark red and green. Aside from the spikes mounted on the gauntlets, there wasn't anything about the machine that even hinted at weaponry. Still, Michelo seemed well-satisfied with its condition.

"So many Gundams," Shagia remarked. He stood before a curiously designed, almost demonic Gundam with a menacing blood-red and black paint job. Another machine stood next to it, slate grey and thickly armored. Its lines were extremely unusual and rounded, leaving one with the impression of mechanical legs attached to a hermit crab. Shagia took a proprietary attitude toward both machines, so presumably one belonged to his absent brother.

"Yeah... with this many real Gundams, the fight's gonna be more interesting than I thought," Michelo grinned.

Scirocco examined every machine with a most careful eye, especially the two machines at the rear of the hangar that seemed to have no coloring at all except for shades of grey. One of them had a curious backpack and strangely jointed legs, the other a large, winged jet pack obviously intended for atmospheric flight.

His own Messala stood beside them, a purple monstrosity so heavily armored that one could barely tell where the head was. Tremendous thrusters and verniers were attached to its body, the signs of a design intended for us in Jupiter's heavy gravity. It hunched, dragon-like, a metal monster surrounded by more humanoid forms.

The two grey Gundams seemed to be the focus of Scirocco's curiosity, although every machine received as close an examination as he dared. "Hmm. No colors yet on these... fresh off the production line, perhaps?"

Quattro had found his own Hyaku Shiki easily, its eye-catching metallic gold brilliant next to the hangar's other machines. He cast an irritated glance Michelo's way. "Gundam's just a name... with the right pilot, any machine can be dangerous."

Even as he said this, though, he cast an unhappy over the tops of his sunglasses at the brown and gold Zaku that sat like a miserable heap in the next hangar over. While probably a decent enough machine for Garma in the One Year War, it was obviously the most miserably weak thing in the hangar.

Scirocco laughed at Quattro's defensive ire. "But look around you, Lieutenant Baijinas. Six Gundams to a single Zaku... isn't this the way the world has slanted?"

Quattro grunted noncommittally, much to Scirocco's amusement. "In my experience, a Gundam is not to be underestimated," Shagia said. "In the wrong hands, that machine has the power to become a destroyer of worlds."

"I almost feel sorry for the idiot stuck in the Busshi. Lemme guess, it's Zabi, right?" Michelo glanced at Quattro, awaiting an answer.

Quattro's twitch was really all he needed. "The Zaku's a quality machine... if a bit out of date."

"Yeah, well, your boyfriend better keep up," Michelo said, largely so he could watch Quattro twitch again.

Shagia's smooth laugh glossed over the tension rising in the room. "We obviously have a formidable force here. The only question is.. will it be a unified force?" He smiled gently as he examined the Messala, and then one by one, the other men present.

"It must be," Scirocco said. "We do have a common enemy to consider, one of unknown strength and purpose. If we begin fighting amongst ourselves, they can capitalize on it and triumph."

"Don't worry about that," Michelo snorted. "Nothing pulls a gang together like another gang to beat on."

"There's more to it than that," Quattro said. "Think about this a minute, gentlemen. Isn't the composition of the enemy force obvious? If the Beyonder wants an even match, then he'll be using an arrangement of pilots similar to us... probably people we know."

"Our rivals?" Scirocco smiled at the thought. "Well, it's easy enough to guess who you dragged in with you, then, Lieutenant Baijinas."

"Perhaps you should tell us about this person... just in case," Shagia asked, with a nod of his head.

"Amuro Ray? Well, there's not much to say... he's an excellent pilot and a failure at most everything else," Scirocco shrugged. "If that's all the Beyonder can come up with, it's going to be a short war."

Quattro smiled, if grimly, at Scirocco's confidence. "You realize that if we're fighting Amuro Ray, Jerid Mesa's likely to be right beside him."

Scirocco seemed a little more amused. "Like I said. Short war."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Stellar Loussier is one of the enemy pilots from Gundam SEED Destiny. One of the two "grey" machines in the hangar sequence is her Gaia Gundam, in "Phase Shift Down" mode.

The other grey machine is Strike Rouge in Phase Shift Down mode. While Flay never piloted canonically, she was at point supposed to be the pilot of Strike Rouge. For the sake of the story, I'm exploiting this little bit of apocrypha.

Shagia is, of course, watching over his own Gundam Virsago and his brother's Gundam Ashtaron.

Garma's custom Zaku is an invention of the Zeonic Front video games.

You don't see it much in the series, but a Zaku-like machine exists as part of the Neo-Japan army in G Gundam. It is, of course, called the Busshi. As a Mobile Suit instead of a Mobile Fighter, it's considered an extremely weak machine.

Scirocco's attitude toward Amuro is mostly conjecture, since the two never really interact in Zeta Gundam. Given what Amuro was up to at the time, contrasted with Scirocco's own accomplishments... well, it seems like a reasonable opinion for him to hold.

Jerid Mesa is Scirocco's lackey in Zeta Gundam, and... well, if you've seen the series, you'll know exactly why Scirocco's not too worried about him. 


	7. Chapter 7

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Both White Base and the Dogos Gear make plans for the approaching confrontation. 

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Life on the Dogos Gear began to settle into something like regularity. When the pilots regrouped in Scirocco's meeting room, the others were introduced to Stellar (who never strayed far from Flay's side), and a course of action reluctantly decided upon. Sensors showed exactly one major settlement in the area, where the green rolling fields began to give way to rockier, more desert-like terrain. Scirocco argued that, given what the Beyonder had told them, they would most likely encounter their designated enemies around a population center. His logic was compelling, or at least good enough that no one felt like arguing about it, and so the course was laid in and the journey begun.

From there, Michelo largely disappeared. Occasionally he was spotted wandering the halls, a bottle of wine no doubt lifted from Scirocco's personal collection in hand. Scirocco chose to let Michelo do as he pleased for now, and everyone else was simply glad to avoid him.

Flay spent most of her time on the bridge, nominally monitoring the ship's operations. It was something of a useless job, as the Beyonder's mechanization of the ship's functions was perfect, but it appeared to be useful while keeping her away from the many dangerous men on the ship. Stellar accompanied her most of the time, when not returned to her pod to sleep. After some study, Flay grew adept enough at using the machine's basic functions, although it clearly had the ability to do more than simply let Stellar rest.

Olba and Garma continued searching the ship for weapons, covertly as possible. They hit pay dirt on the second day, finding an unlocked small arms locker in the barracks. Soon Garma, Olba, Flay, and Stellar had small pistols to keep concealed on their person, and Olba insisted upon letting his brother Shagia have one as well. While the conspiracy had no precise plans for overthrowing Scirocco just yet, it was decided that the best time to act would be when they reached their destination. Flay made much of how much safer she felt, and soon had both Garma and Olba paying her regular visits on the bridge.

If Scirocco knew of the conspiracy against him, he showed no signs of it. He instead was content to spend most of his time in the hangar, performing "maintenance" on the fascinating array of machines left at his disposal. Quattro followed him like a malevolent shadow, while Shagia followed the both of them. Scirocco merely put them to work with him as he tuned and checked the machines, making sure each was perfectly armed and ready to perform.

Most of the second day was spent on working with the two all-grey Gundams, which they now knew to belong to Stellar and, apparently, Flay. Both girls appeared to know nothing of how the machines worked, which was just fine for Scirocco's purposes. It meant he had free reign to study and alter them as he saw fit, and the "Phase Shift" technology Flay had mentioned in passing sounded most intriguing.

Shagia watched him from the floor, apparently perfectly relaxed as he sat on the metal floor and leaned against Virsago's enormous metal foot. His eyes were closed, and if not for his occasional speech, one might think he was asleep. "Amazing how design conventions seem to transcend the boundaries between our worlds. 'Gundam' seems to be a universal word of power," he said.

Quattro snorted from across the hangar row, where he was working with an access panel opened in Strike Rouge's ankle. Whenever Shagia opted to start conversation with a poetic, self-important and half-baked bit of philosophy, he felt like snorting. "Too much stock placed in a particular design philosophy."

"Perhaps, but they seem to attract interesting individuals," Scirocco said, if distractedly, from Strike Rouge's open cockpit. He sat in the pilot's chair, working with the disjointed mess that passed for the machine's operating system. It was hard to believe such a terrible interface had been designed with actual human use in mind. The cockpit system itself was also unspeakably primitive, with none of the elegance or sophistication of 0087's linear cockpits.

Quattro decided to keep speaking, if only to keep Scirocco from beginning another tiresome conversation about sophomore philosophy with Shagia. "My Hyaku Shiki would be just as fine a machine if it were designed with a mono-eye."

"Would you like me to arrange that, Mr. Baijinas? We do have the spare parts."

Quattro craned his head up at Scirocco, for all that he knew the other man couldn't really see him. Scirocco still managed to get under his skin. "Don't be confused, Scirocco. I regard us as being under a flag of truce, and only until we get home."

Shagia shook his head, laughing softly. "I've listened to the veterans of the war, heard about the mono-eyes of the Jenices and the visors of the G-Bits. But the Gundams were most terrifying of all, and not due to their power." He opened his eyes, glancing over at Quattro. "I'm sure you understand why."

"No. I don't," Quattro replied, tersely.

"The eyes," Shagia said. "Those two pinpoints of light, knowing that they were hunted not by monsters or machines, but by humans. It was a vivid image for those pilots."

"A soldier has no time for superstition," Quattro said.

"Indeed. I can think of more intimidating things than man," Scirocco agreed, as he swung the machine's faintly ridiculous integrated keyboard down. He was certainly going to improve this clumsy mess of a computer system before he expected someone to take the field in it, let alone an untried if potentially useful girl like Flay.

"Really?" Shagia asked, complete surprise in his voice. "Men from a world with Newtypes and your 'White Devil' are not intimidated by their fellow man? They truly hold no superstition in their hearts?"

Quattro immediately regretted telling Shagia anything about the Universal Century, even if their various points of origin was really the only thing to talk about. "Newtypes are no superstition," was his terse reply. "You'll see the proof of that soon enough."

"I've been in space... far past the asteroid belt. Around the orbit of Jupiter, you may look out and see something far more imposing than man," Scirocco said, untrammeled by modesty.

He tapped a few buttons, seeing if he could set up better motion command algorithms. Strike Rouge flexed its arms accordingly, and began to give up all the details of its armaments and capabilities. Scirocco lost the thread of the conversation, though Quattro and Shagia still sniped at each other, so that he could focus on absorbing the data with a Newtype's raw superhuman efficiency.

"Standard systems... beam rifle, beam sabers... ah, the 'Phase Shift Armor'. Interesting..." He clicked through the system options, giving it the order to power-up. With an electronic hum, the machine's dull grey warmed into pink and a pale, dusky red. It was as if he machine was shifting into wakefulness out of a long slumber.

Quattro had picked up on the electronic hum that signaled the change, but was not quite ready for the sight of that particular shade of red. He lost his train of thought completely, a strange and unreadable expression crossing his face. "...what the..."

Scirocco leaned out of the cockpit, to examine the machine's external changes more closely. He couldn't help but chuckle at its effect on Quattro. "Well, now! With this, Miss Allster could end up becoming the next Red Comet."

Shagia carefully observed the quiet disgust that crept over Quattro's face at the name 'Red Comet', and Scirocco's obvious shadenfreude. "... how very interesting."

He tried to resume their previous conversation, though; there was a bit of history he wanted to see Quattro and Scirocco's reactions to. "But if you don't mind me saying so, Lieutenant Baijinas, I must wonder at people immune to the iconic power inherent in the 'Gundam' name. It is, after all, a machine of immense power... is it not? In my world, at least, it was a single Gundam that destroyed the Earth."

Quattro would have been grateful for any distraction from Scirocco's bad taste in comedy, but a statement like that would have grabbed his attention at any time. "-- destroyed Earth?"

Shagia was quite ready to tell the story. "Gundam X. Our 'first Gundam'. It shot the colonies out of the sky and sent them falling to Earth."

Quattro's expression drained of color, as one shock piled upon another. "What?!"

Scirocco's tone was more one of polite interest. "You developed Gundams with the power to destroy entire colonies?"

Shagia remained nonchalant, delighting in their innocent reactions. It confirmed many of his suspicions. "Nine billion people died. It was quite the calamity."

Quattro was stunned. "What kind of a weapon could..."

"Nuclear?" Scirocco suggested.

"Even then, how could one machine shoot down so many colonies? The logistics are inconceivable," Quattro said.

"That's all I know, unfortunately," Shagia said, with a too-smooth smile and an apologetic shrug of his shoulders. "It was fifteen years ago, and I was very young at the time."

"Probably just a legend, then," Scirocco said. "Though it could still have some kernel of truth. It would be interesting to see if this 'Gundam X' was among the enemy machines planted here."

"It's possible," Quattro said, his voice straining to remain even. "Even if that apocalypse is just a legend, any machine that could create such a legend would be a horror in itself."

"Of course," Shagia said. "That's why, I imagine, our own Gundams are cast in its image."

Scirocco didn't find Shagia's apocalyptic visions quite as interesting as the Mobile Suit he was working on, and so he returned to Strike Rouge's cockpit to begin sorting through more of its operational data. "'Hyper-Capacitor'... this machine runs on a battery?"

Quattro glanced up at Scirocco's exclamation of surprise, which mirrored his own feelings at the concept. "There's no internal reactor in it?"

"It seems not." Scirocco stared at the readout screen in bafflement. Why design such a high-spec, energy-hungry armor system without a proper power supply? If the equations for Phase Shift power consumption working out in his head were correct, the machine would just barely manage about fifteen minutes of full operation before it needed a recharge.

"Then it's useless," Quattro said with a shake of his head. "Except as something to defend the ship."

"I wouldn't go that far," Scirocco said, "but I'm going to have to clean this mess up later. It needs a proper Minovsky reactor if it's going to be able to put any of its load out to decent use."

"It's a bit much effort, for a machine with a totally untested pilot, isn't it?" Shagia said. "Even if we acquired such a spare reactor before we encountered our enemy."

"Not having the reactor is one thing," Quattro said, "but don't underestimate an untested pilot in a desperate situation. You're likely to end up surprised."

"Speaking from experience, Mr. Baijinas?" Scirocco grinned down at him from Strike Rouge's cockpit.

Quattro scowled, while Shagia smiled gently to conceal his amusement. 

-X-X-X-

White Base had become a ship divided, with any decision only made after long rounds of debate and argument. The crew had split into two obvious factions, with Shin, Johnny, and Gato persistently setting themselves apart from the rest of the suspiciously Earthnoid crew. The ship had eventually set a course for the one population center that showed up in sensor range, with most of the crew agreeing that it was the only reasonable way to gather any reconnaissance about their situation. Shin made it quite clear that he felt they should go to protect the population from the enemy, though.

Duties on the ship eventually split up somewhat organically. Christina, Johnny, and Gato spent most of their time on the bridge, monitoring systems, gathering data, and having byzantine arguments about the merits and flaws in Zeon philosophy and politics. Loran stayed away the bridge, eventually settling into a role running the mess hall and cataloging supplies with Edward's help. Amuro divided his time between the bridge, when he could tolerate the politically-charged atmosphere, and assisting Lowe with mechanical upkeep. Shin did not appear to do much besides attend to the Spacenoid machines in the hangar, and brood alone in his bunk. 

Hangar maintenance ended up being the topic of the ship's most heated disagreements. Gato expressly forbade Lowe to touch his GP-02, Johnny Ridden's custom Zaku, or Shin Asuka's Impulse without supervision. Lowe tried time and again to explain what "Junk Guild" affiliation meant to Gato and the other two Spacenoid pilots, but to no avail. To Gato, Lowe had clearly aligned with the Federation pilots, and so was not to be trusted.

So Lowe worked, sometimes with Amuro and occasionally with Loran, on the ship's other machines. The work went slowly, as when Loran was around he always stopped and begged them for explanations of what they were doing. Neither Lowe nor Amuro were accustomed to that kind of enthusiasm for Mobile Suit engineering, and they would gladly indulge in hour-long digressions from their work.

Loran made it quite clear that he was not from a world that had any idea where Mobile Suits came from, even though they apparently used and operated ancient models that were excavated from hidden caves in the mountains. He claimed his own Turn-A, which he always called the White Doll, was found inside of an idol worshiped by the locals. Basic concepts of electric engineering and computing sometimes seemed unfamiliar to him, and the very idea that Lowe and Amuro's civilizations could manufacture new Mobile Suits as they saw fit appeared to leave him awe-struck. 

It was curious, given the sheer sophistication of Loran's "White Doll". After the other machines were long since taken care of, Lowe and Amuro found themselves stumped even trying to find its access panels. They were eventually reduced to hacking the cockpit computer with Lowe's "Hachi" AI, although Hachi seemed to find much of Turn-A's operating systems incomprehensible.

"Sorry, guys, but this is a pretty serious high-grade high-security quantum computer. I'm gonna need a couple months at least to figure out what it does," Hachi's screen flashed apologetically.

Lowe all but danced with impatience. "Months? Hachi, come on!"

"You're just going to have to be patient, Lowe," Amuro said. "This tech base is so alien, I'm surprised we even got access."

"And if you guys detach me for deployment, it'll take a little longer," Hachi stated again, via his screen.

Loran just frowned in disappointment, as he had begun to harbor the happy fantasy that perhaps Lowe or Amuro's people had originally created the White Doll. That would mean his Turn-A was a great heroic robot from a noble past, a notion more romantically appealing than the idea that it was simply an old war machine. "I guess it can't be helped... but anything that let me know more about the White Doll would help us. Right now I don't really understand much of what it does... a lot of times it does things on its own."

"Yeah, it may not talk much, but there's definitely AI controlling your access to the OS," Hachi said via text. "At least it seems to like you guys! If it didn't, I don't think it'd let me access it at all, and it sure wouldn't let anybody pilot it."

"It's intelligence?! That's awesome!" Lowe said.

"That's a terrible idea," Amuro said with a shake of his head. "What happens if it decides it doesn't like you?"

"You're being too literal again, man," Lowe said. "You keep thinking a Gundam is just a vehicle. I keep telling you, they're more than that! They want to help people!"

Amuro sighed and desperately tried to change the subject. "Lowe, you know I can't take that seriously, and I can't believe an engineer as gifted as you are does."

"That's why I have more fun than you do!" Lowe grinned. Amuro laughed, unable to disagree with him, while Loran watched Hachi's screen fill with the incomprehensible data it was pulling from Turn-A's computers. Loran liked to think that if he watched it long enough, he might see something profound. 

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED... 


	8. Chapter 8

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base gains unexpected new recruits, as they draw closer to their destination. 

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

It was early in the third day of White Base's journey toward their unnamed destination, in a world curiously devoid of both communications signals and Minovsky interference, when the hangar was disturbed by the arrival of two new Gundams. They dropped into the middle of the "dead zone" that separated the Spacenoid portion of the hangar from the "Federation" side. Both Shin and Lowe were in the hangar at the time, and both shared a moment of supreme bafflement.

The Gundams did not appear in a burst of light or with any sort of auditory cue; they were simply there, limp metal bodies reclining against each other. One of them was red and white, with enormous wing-binders extending off the backpack and a pair of enormous high-caliber semi-automatic beam rifles stored on racks at the top of the skirt armor. The thickly armored legs and backpack both bore the tell-tale signs of transformation mechanisms, suggesting the Gundam had some sort of Mobile Armor form. 

The other was more inscrutable. Its colors were somewhat generic for a Gundam: white, gold, red, and blue. The lines of its body were impossible to place, neither the stark militarism of the Universal Century designs nor the slick, almost heroic bulk of the Cosmic Era machines. It had no obvious external arms mounted, although even at a distance Lowe could tell that it had very unusual hands for a Mobile Suit. They were exceptionally articulated and human-like, clearly made to do more than simply grasp guns and swords.

Lowe and Shin approached the abrupt pile of unfamiliar Mobile Suits from opposite ends of the hangar, but stood together to gaze upwards at them in consternation. Finally, they glanced at each other, perhaps hesitantly, but somehow knowing that they were equally responsible for this, as they were equally present in the hangar.

"Call the bridge?" Lowe asked.

"On it," Shin said.

-X-X-X-

"What do you mean, new Mobile Suits arrived?" Johnny asked, staring into his comms headset as if it could be shamed into offering an explanation.

"What I said," Shin's voice repeated. "There are two new Mobile Suits down here. They're not Cosmic Era or Universal Century. What's going on, do we have new pilots?"

All present on the unusually crowded bridge stared at Johnny's comms station. Along with the usual complement of Gato, Johnny, and Christina, both Amuro and Edward happened to be there as well, both assisting with a project Christina had suggested. Since they were drawing near a settlement, wouldn't there logically be some radio bands or other communication frequencies about?

It turned out to take an enormous amount of effort to monitor the entire area around the ship, as White Base had been designed for the era of Minovsky-dominated warfare and the crippling of communications that came with that. They'd jury-rigged a few navigation systems to double as comms with Amuro's help, and worked long hours hoping for any sign of humans attempting to contact other humans. They'd found absolutely nothing, nor traces of Minovsky jamming, which made Shin's report all the more baffling.

"There shouldn't be... it's impossible, there's no signs of other people here," Gato said.

"Unless they just arrived," Christina said.

Amuro stood, heading for the two ops stations located behind the captain's chair. Thus far, no one aboard had dared to threaten their uneasy truce by sitting in it. Moments passed as Amuro's fingers deftly worked the controls. "He's right," he finally said. "We've got two extra life signs in one of the forward corridor sections."

"... we'll take care of it. You and Lowe remain where you are until the bridge contacts you again," Johnny spoke into his head.

An irritated noise escaped it before Shin spoke a proper response. "Understood." With that he cut off communications.

"Time to roll out the welcome wagon, huh?" Ed asked. One of his hands went into his jacket, checking his sidearm in its holster. Another element of their unspoken truce was that all military personnel kept their sidearms with them at all times, no questions asked. The two civilians, Lowe and Loran, seemed blissfully unaware of the situation, while most everyone else worried about Shin doing something foolish in a fit of temper.

"We hardly have a choice," Johnny said.

"I'm going to remain at the bridge, if you don't mind," Christina said. "Someone needs to track down Loran and tell him not to move until you've made contact with the unknowns."

"Good thinking," Amuro said. "Logically, Edward, myself, Johnny, and Gato can handle it. We'll outnumber them two to one, so they'll think twice about being hostile."

"Good of you to volunteer me, Feddie," Gato sneered.

"It's the only reasonable response." Amuro's reply was terse.

Gato stood up from his station's chair. "Which is why I'll go along with it, this time. But don't think you've got the right to start giving orders just because the situation's unusual, Captain." He twisted Amuro's rank out in a bitter insult. "... let's just get going." Ed headed for the door, hoping to silence Gato before he could get much farther into his righteous wrath. 'Righteous wrath', frankly struck, Ed as a likely candidate for Gato's favorite hobby.

-X-X-X-

First they followed Amuro's knowledge of White Base's interior layout, which was better than anyone else's if not quite infallible. They stopped when they began to hear faint voices drifting down the corridors, letting Johnny take point before they moved closer. They made no effort to move quietly or conceal their positions as they rounded the corner. 

When he could just make out two figures, probably men, Johnny shouted. "Hey! You up there!"

The two paused, allowing Johnny's group to draw nearer. One of the men had the distinct look of a pilot, spiky pale-brown hair cut practically short, although his bomber jacket bore no symbols that would identify him as part of a particular military. The other regarded them more warily, with hard eyes and a posture that reminded Johnny faintly of a boxer. He dressed more like a civilian, although outlandishly, with a flamboyant brown traveler's cape covering much of his body and a red headband struggling to hold back unruly dark hair.

Johnny tried to approach them in a friendly manner, though his movements were guarded. "You were moving pretty fast. I guess you didn't waste much time arguing, huh?"

The one in the bomber jacket took his hands out of his pockets, placing them on his hips. There was annoyance in his voice, but an absence of any deeper reaction. "Hey! Are you the guy responsible for this?"

Johnny anticipated that question, and was ready to answer. "I'm afraid not. We just got here a little earlier than you did."

"Man, did we win the weird jackpot this time," Ed muttered.

"I'm sure we seem as strange to them," Amuro replied softly.

"Actually, you guys seem pretty normal to me," the man in the bomber jacket replied. "Dunno about his idea of normal, though." He jerked his thumb at his silent companion, who was openly sizing up the group as it drew nearer. "Are you from the Universal Century?" Gato asked.

"Uh... the what?" His one visible eye blinked in confusion; the other was concealed by a hank of spiky, pale brown hair.

Gato sighed in disappointment. "Then I'm afraid we are strangers to each other. What about your friend?"

"He's not my friend, he's... uh, hey, Domon?" He reached over to tap the other man on the shoulder.

'Domon' ignored him. His gaze had focused on Amuro, eyes searching. Amuro was not quite willing to return that gaze, instead look at him sidelong. His expression was unusually closed and alert, and one hand-- perhaps subconsciously-- had strayed up to rub his forehead, just above the junction of his brows, as if in pain.

"Come on, Domon, don't make this a bigger pain in the ass than it has to be..." the as-yet unnamed stranger said, sounding slightly worried. It was the tone of voice the owner of an unruly dog might use.

"That guy has a sword," Ed said softly, under his breath. It was just visible over the curve of the man's shoulder, jutting up from beneath his traveling cloak.

Gato tried to defuse the tension, hardly interested in cutting a man down with gunfire before he knew anything more about him than his name. He addressed Johnny, but in a voice clearly meant for others, too. "Sir, do you want me to try and explain the situation, or do you want the honor?"

It only seemed to prompt Domon into action. He surged forward, a focused shout of exertion ripping into the air. He had cleared a good three meters of space in the blink of an eye; his hands were on the lapels of Amuro's uniform and flight jacket before the others could even begin reaching for their sidearms.

Although Domon certainly had a height and reach advantage over Amuro, his stature conveyed no sense of unusual strength. Yet, he was able to heft Amuro into the air with extreme ease, holding him with his feet dangling inches off the floor. It almost seemed as if Domon could have performed the disturbing feat one-handed, had he been so inclined.

Domon's companion in the bomber jacket stumbled backwards in shock as the other man moved forward with superhuman speed. "H-hey! Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted in alarm.

Domon spoke as if he and Amuro were the only people in the room, his voice suffused with a quiet but terrifying anger. "Where is Rain Mikamura? Why have you interrupted the Gundam Fight, and what have you done with Shining Gundam?!"

At first, Amuro made no sound. He seemed to be struggling for breath, perhaps unable to answer.

Ed drew his sidearm. "Let him go! NOW!" he shouted. All traces of his usual easy-going demeanor were gone.

Johnny didn't go for his gun at all; to him it seemed futile in such close quarters, with any shot fired at Domon running the risk of hitting Amuro. Instead he grabbed at Domon's shoulder and tried to pull it toward him, an effort as futile as twisting granite. Nothing about Johnny's demeanor communicated failure, though. "Hey, settle down, pal! I told you, we just got here before you!"

"Release that man now," Gato scowled. He drew his own sidearm and leveled it at Domon; either he was not overly-concerned with Amuro, or did not expect Domon would understand anything but threat of brute force.

Yet Domon remained where he was, showing no fear of guns even at point-blank range, and no sign of having paid attention to anything but his captured quarry. Amuro, likewise, had remained utterly calm aside from his attempts to get more breath into his lungs. "Not my doing," he finally croaked out. 

Domon's eyes flitted back and forth, as if he were just now appraising his situation and realizing that, in theory, it was dangerous. Perhaps it was not dangerous enough, by his standards. He kept Amuro aloft in the air. "Are you the leader here?" he asked.

"No." Amuro's voice was barely louder than a breath.

Domon's stance wavered, and the anger in his eyes became first uncertain, then ashamed of itself. He lowered Amuro to the ground, letting go of his collar, and suddenly the palpable sense of fury about him-- and Amuro's oncoming headache-- were gone. "You're an officer of some kind... a soldier." Domon did not quite ask a question, but his statement of fact was not entirely sure of itself.

Johnny saw an opportunity and stepped in, to take charge of the situation. "Many of us are."

"You're not from the same army," Domon said accusingly. As if suddenly remembering him, he glanced back over one shoulder at his flustered companion. "Witz?"

"There aren't any uniforms I've seen before," Witz answered. Largely, he seemed relieved that Domon was no longer on the verge of getting him killed by proxy.

"It's true that, by choice, we would never fight on the same side," Gato said. His posture relaxed, although he did not lower his sidearm all the way. "Still, all of us here have something in common."

"What's that?" Witz asked.

"Someone "from beyond" wanted to play a wargame with real MS and real pilots. There's another "team" out there somewhere, and supposedly if we make them surrender we'll win," Johnny said.

"We're just the pawns this person chose for his game. I'm afraid you're all in the same circumstance now." Amuro spoke softly, although more as a concession to his bruised throat than his usual habit of trying to be as unassuming as possible.

"MS? Mobile Suits?" Domon asked.

"Bingo, Samurai," Ed said, finally lowering his gun. "At least, assuming you're all MS pilots too.""Not just MS, but Gundams," Gato said. "Your machines are already in our hangar."

Witz eyed the men arrayed before him and shook his head. His voice was utterly incredulous. "So let's see if I have this right. Something pulled me and this guy from when and wherever, dumped us here, and now we have to fight some other random guys in the same situation?"

"Essentially," Amuro said.

Witz's face twisted into a scowl. "Are we at least getting paid?"

Gato looked at him oddly, with the beginnings of disapproval. "What kind of man cares about that in a situation like this?"

"I'm a mercenary... hell, I'm a Vulture!" Witz exclaimed. "It's always the first thing I care about!"

"If you're soldiers, and you 'pilot' Gundams... does that mean someone is using Gundams to wage war?" Domon asked. There was something grave about the question, as if this situation was utterly unthinkable to him.

Ed stared at him. "What the hell else do you use them for?"

"The Gundam Fight!" Domon exclaimed. "Putting a Gundam on a battlefield would be..." Domon did not entirely seem to have the words for how terrible such a thing would be.

Amuro felt up to trying to clear the air. "We don't know who we're fighting yet... or what, for that matter." 

"We'll avoid it if we can, but if it's our host's intention... I'm not counting on it," Johnny said.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Witz asked, outraged. "I want this give this asshole a piece of my mind. I've got better things to do than screw around here."

"All we have from him is a message," Johnny said. "We can show it to you... it's not exactly satisfying. All he said is that he's "beyond" us, so we've taken to calling him the Beyonder for now."

"He's not paying us, and he won't show up? God dammit, this is such bull," Witz cursed. "Let me guess, he won't let us go home until he gets his show?"

"At least you catch on quickly," Gato said, voice dry.

"No one's going to force either of you to deploy against your wishes," Amuro stepped forward and spoke, voice firm. "If we're forced to fight for survival, your efforts are welcome, but no one is going to force you to play the Beyonder's game."

Witz and Domon calmed noticeably at that. Gato glanced at Amuro, unable to entirely disguise his irritation. For a man who refused to claim command, nothing seemed to stop Captain Ray from acting like he was in charge when he wanted something.

Domon's reaction made Amuro realize the extent of the faux pas he had just unthinkingly committed. "You say you don't lead these men, but you obviously have the wisdom for it. I'll listen to you, for now."

"Let's take you back to the bridge. We'll show you the recording and introduce you to the others," Johnny said. He seemed likewise unhappy with Amuro's sudden influence over the situation, but did nothing more to express it but turn around and begin heading back the way they came.

The others had no real problem with following, Gato and Ed holstering their sidearms for now. As Ed and Witz began to talk, Amuro noticed that Domon had begun following him. His discomfort at that was acute.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Witz Sou is one of the protagonists of After War Gundam X... probably not the protagonist Shagia and Olba are expecting.

Domon Kasshu is, of course, the protagonist of Mobile Fighter G Gundam.

The machines that appeared in the hangar are, naturally, Airmaster and Shining Gundam. 


	9. Chapter 9

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars 

Chapter Synopsis: Dogos Gear digs in for its confrontation with White Base, as both ships struggle to deal with threats within.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

With its superior engines and instruments, the Dogos Gear reached its destination days ahead of White Base. Scirocco passed up no opportunity to entrench his advantage, leaving the conspiracy against him further stymied. If anything, it was hard not to admire him at work in his element.

His first act was to seize control of the settlement. This was easy, because 'settlement' was really far too grandiose a term for the collection of confused refugees the Beyonder had left for them. The town actually appeared to be a chunk that had abruptly been torn out of the side of a colony, or perhaps chunks of several colonies that got wedged together somehow. Tents and hovels spread out around it in the sort of squalid display that, the Frosts assured everyone, was common enough in their timeline.

The people there had no real leaders, little food, and absolutely no social order. Scirocco announced himself over all of the communication frequencies he could think might be useful, declared that he was in control of the area for the foreseeable future, and simply left it at that. No fiery rebels or other men claiming to be in charge appeared to challenge him, so he became local dictator by fiat.

Mere hours after he declared his rulership, Scirocco began gathering supplies. He covertly sent Michelo and sometimes Flay and Stellar off the ship to gather arms, parts, and other supplies to supplement what the Beyonder had given them. The only currency being exchanged was apparently intimidation. Michelo knew well how to run an extortion racket, and while Stellar was slow she could grow terrifyingly strong and violent the moment something appeared to threaten Flay.

During the first night, the Dogos Gear was contacted by the pilot of a Mobile Suit, who said he'd fight for them if they could feed and shelter him, and take care of his machine. He was a young pilot, perhaps sixteen at most, with dull, empty eyes and the sullenly servile demeanor of a born lackey. Scirocco agreed to consider it, provided the boy was willing to come aboard alone before his Mobile Suit was transported in.

The young man's name was Clotho Buer, and while to Scirocco he was merely extra muscle most likely provided by the Beyonder, he was an incredible boon to the conspiracy. Much like Stellar, he was an Earth Alliance pilot that seemed to have something faintly wrong with him. Recognizing Flay's uniform, he immediately fixated on her as a source of authority. He didn't seem to need the rejuvenation pods that Stellar slept in, but once Scirocco accepted him, he immediately presented Flay with boxes of pills.

She was to administer them to him, one at a time, before battle, and he was insistent that once given a pill, he must be allowed to fight until the drug lost its effect. His relief at having the pills in the hands of someone else was uncanny, as was his immediate indifference to everything that was not a direct order from Flay or Scirocco (or occasionally Michelo, who obviously too strong to ignore). When not ordered to do anything in particular, Clotho simply took to haunting the bridge as Flay's shadow, playing video games on a portable system that he never allowed himself to part with.

Flay's ability to influence Stellar had made her useful, but her ability to command both Stellar and Clotho made her powerful. The Frosts were quick to notice, Olba pointing that they now held an insuperable advantage of numbers over the forces nominally loyal to Scirocco. Flay made it clear she'd do whatever was necessary to rid herself of Scirocco and Michelo, and Clotho and Stellar would certainly do whatever she wished. The bulk of the planning and dirty work would be in the Frost's hands.

Although Garma was still nominally part of the conspiracy, the Frosts had no intention of bringing him along to their final destination. Shagia felt he was compromised by his ambiguous relationship to Quattro, who was too independent and mercenary to be useful as an ally or an enemy. Garma's focus on working against Scirocco had faded, replaced by a stubborn desire to get Quattro to admit that he was actually a man named Char Aznable.

Perhaps more venally, Olba had simply grown tired of Garma and his ridiculous, flamboyantly self-important personality. He was especially tired of Garma's habit of moping about the bridge, distracting Flay when Olba would much rather be the recipient of her undivided attention. He had made his displeasure clear to his big brother, who would of course not deny him anything.

A scheme had suggested itself to the Frosts from the very beginning, something that would use Scirocco's own obvious potency and his alliance with Michelo against him. Putting it into motion would involve little more than simple deception, and if they were lucky, also let them use Scirocco's own Newtype ability to grant themselves the key to final victory in the Beyonder's war game.

In the meantime, though, they instructed all thinking members of the conspiracy to behave as if nothing was unusual. Everyone appeared to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the matter of boarding Clotho's machine, a staggeringly ugly Gundam named Raider. It had something of the unearthly ugliness of a Mobile Armor about it, with sinister black and grey colors capped off with a blood-red backpack, the entire machine bristling with weapons attached at any remotely reasonable point. It used Trans Phase Armor instead of Strike Rouge and Gaia's Phase Shift Armor, which differed largely in that its operation consumed less power and allowed for extended usefulness in the field. Scirocco seemed to find it delightful, which served largely to make Quattro very nervous.

Once Raider was aboard, there was nothing to do but sit and wait until the enemy made themselves known. Scirocco haunted the bridge, scattering Minovsky particles over the entire settlement to kill communications now that he'd accomplished his goals. Michelo availed himself of the populace in the meantime, amusing himself by organizing lackeys and acquiring much of the settlement's best booze and valuables. Olba availed himself of Michelo's new racket so he could give Flay and Stellar a pair of lovely silk dresses, liberated from a merchant who foolishly sought to keep his goods and his life.

Flay's shriek of delight and Stellar's quiet confusion were much to Olba's delight and Shagia's amusement. He had never observed his little brother to take such an interest in women, but perhaps that was because he had never held such an advantageous position over ladies his own age. It would be a useful lesson in how to deal with the fairer sex to personal advantage, and so Shagia let Olba amuse himself as he wished for the time being. If nothing else, it would simply ensure that when the time came, Flay would have no choice but to support the Frosts until the very end.

-X-X-X-

Integrating Witz and Domon into White Base's uneasy balance of power merely proved how very delicate it was. All was fine enough on the bridge, when they heard the Beyonder's recording. Domon exploded with fury, and Witz with resigned sarcasm. For his part, Witz was ready to join the others aboard the ship in reluctantly playing the Beyonder's game. It was the mature and rational response, after all.

Domon would have no part of it, living up to the "samurai" nickname Ed gave him perfectly. He raged at the prospect of honorless combat, and at one point seemed ready to simply leave the ship and try to track down the Beyonder on foot and challenge him to some sort of duel. Only the knowledge that, at the moment, no one was sure if the Beyonder was even a corporeal being stopped him.

It was Amuro that defused his rages with an uncanny deftness, at least well enough that Domon could be reasoned with. He used nothing more than words, never really disagreeing with Domon's sentiment while dissuading him from immediately violent reactions. To Ed and Christina it seemed an inspiring burst of leadership from one of the ship's most level-headed if retiring personalities; for Gato and Johnny, it was hard not to see a hand grasping at influence. Domon's demeanor did nothing to reassure them, as it clear by the end of the discussion in the bridge that Domon regarded Amuro as White Base's only legitimate authority.

When there were merely eight people on the ship, with the military officers broken into opposing groups of three with harmless eccentrics like Lowe and Loran caught in the middle, things had come to a sort of workable stalemate. Domon's decision to favor Amuro so blatantly immediately influenced Witz, who simply seemed to think this was the ship's status quo. By the time Christina escorted Domon from the bridge, so she could introduce him to the other White Base personnel, the Zeon were quietly seething.

Further complicating the situation was a distinct lack of major skills besides piloting from the two new pilots. Witz knew his way around a ship well enough to occasionally lend a hand on the bridge, but anything but the simplest tasks clearly left him over his head. True to his claims of being a mercenary, he would readily admit that his duties usually ended the moment he stepped out of his cockpit. Otherwise he was a surprisingly quiet presence on the ship,

Domon, for his part, seemed to have no clear idea that anything in particular should be expected of him. He shadowed Amuro at times, asking questions, and occasionally showed himself around the hangar. A few times Ed and Loran co-opted him into working with organizing supplies, since his great strength meant he could lift sacks and boxes for hours at a time without tiring (and with an attitude less abrasive than Shin's).

Things aboard the ship held together for the next few days, if only because of a distinct lack of anywhere else to go. Still, the tension on the bridge was obvious, and even stalwarts like Christina and Gato found herself increasingly eager to find ways to get away from bridge duty. The ship had, perhaps, grown large enough to demand the attention of a single commander, but the divisive politics of the Universal Century made such an appointment or even a compromise impossible.

-X-X-X-

Tensions began to evaporate on the third day, when signs of Minovsky particle jamming began to filter in to the bridge as they drew closer to the population center that served as their final destination. The political divisions were most bitter among the pilots from the Universal Century, but they all knew most intimately what Minovsky jamming meant: they were entering the proximity of another ship, possibly the enemy the Beyonder promised. Suddenly, decisive action didn't resemble a grab for power quite so much, and it was harder to feel suspicious of people who could at least be counted upon not to be hostile.

The ship's personnel were gathered into a rare meeting in the bridge, to ensure that everyone was present in a single place. The Universal Century pilots spent some time simply trying to explain the significance of Minovsky jamming to the others, which was particularly difficult for the civilians to grasp. The matter was complicated by the constant need to keep Lowe and Amuro from wandering away into a tangent discussing the complete history and finer applications of Minovsky particles.

Once the point was made, if in a basic sort of way, discussion about how to handle the situation could begin. "The Minovsky jamming isn't going to clear itself up. We should make sure we're ready for deployment, and then contact the other ship. Maybe we'll be able to reason with them, but maybe we won't."

No one offered serious argument to this. It was really the only sensible course of action in the circumstance. "If we do contact the other ship, we need to be careful about how we present ourselves," Amuro said. "Have only the military personnel present on the bridge. Some enemies might be more eager to attack a ship if they see evidence of civilians or young people aboard."  
"Fine with me. I'll be waiting to launch in the Core Splendor," Shin said.

"I can use the White Doll!" Loran said.

"Me and Hachi got your in back in Red Frame," Lowe added.

Domon, as usual, was the difficult one. "I don't need to wait in the hangar. If we are about to see the enemy, I want to be able to look them in the eye and let them know they face the King of Hearts."

Witz had his own ideas, too. "Not that I want to make you guys look bad, but I'd better be on the bridge, too. If there's somebody there from After War, I might be able to reason with 'em."

Gato scowled. It was rare that Amuro said much of anything he agreed with, and he didn't much like the idea of the delusional samurai and the lowly mercenary trying to infringe upon sound military order. "We can't overcrowd the bridge, and we can't run the risk of initiating combat because of a breach of protocol."

"Colonel Gato, I'm sure things will be fine if Mr. Kasshu and Mr. Sou agree not to speak out of turn," Christina said, defensively. "It can hardly hurt to have representatives of more timelines on the board when we make contact."

"With all due respect, Colonel Gato, I think Lieutenant MacKenzie may have the better argument here," Johnny said. His tone was extremely diplomatic, which seemed to do much to mollify Gato's dissatisfaction.

"Very well. But then who determines what is speaking in turn?" Gato asked.

"It ought to come down to whoever has the most command experience," Ed said. "So that counts out just about everybody but Commander Ridden and Captain Ray, far as I can tell."

All eyes lit on the two men, who regarded each other warily for a long moment. Amuro opened his mouth to speak, but Johnny was already ahead of him.

"Captain Ray's Zeon equivalent would outrank me. For the purposes of keeping order during the contact with the unknown ship, I'll defer to him," Johnny said. His eyes and tone made it quite clear that this deference would last exactly as long as that communication, and not a second longer.

Still, Amuro was grateful to receive even that much of a compromise. "Agreed, Commander. I'm glad we could come to an agreement so quickly."

"Just being pragmatic," Johnny said, careful not to sound too friendly. The agreement satisfied most everyone gathered at the bridge, although Shin and Gato clearly thought Johnny was being excessively magnanimous to the Feddie faction.

"Well, we've decided on our course of action, let's get to it," Amuro said. Shin, Lowe, and Loran headed out to the elevator to suit up for a potential deployment. The military personnel began work on restoring some of the terminals that had been jury-rigged to assist in the sensor sweeps. Johnny took over the main comm station, while Christina moved over to the navigation station they used to steer the ship (in lieu of the ship's wheel, which no one had any idea how to operate). This left Witz free to work the less challenging ops station, and Edward and Gato free to move toward the weapons and tactical stations. Domon simply leaned against a wall at the back of the room, eyes already focused on the ship's forward screen.

Amuro approached the captain's chair, and then hesitated. It was clearly where he should be, given the role he'd accepted in the operation, but he seemed unable to make himself take the last step forward. Christina's navigation station happened to be one of the two mounted behind the captain's chair, and she gazed down at him curiously as she noticed his hesitation. "Captain?"

"Oh, ah. I'm sorry. This just doesn't quite feel right... White Base only ever had one captain before it was decommissioned. I knew him... taking his seat feels wrong to me. It's kind of ridiculous, isn't it?" Amuro laughed, if awkwardly, to try and take the edge off of his distress.

Johnny broke in on the conversation without so much as turning away from his forward communications station. "This is hardly the time for sentiment, Captain Ray."

"If he knew about the situation we were in now, I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Christian added, more gently.

"You're right, of course," Amuro murmured. He took a deep breath, then forced out the last few steps toward the chair. Lowering himself into it, it seemed like an ordinary command chair, and the feeling of unease passed.

Amuro opened his mouth to give his first order, but was interrupted once again by Johnny. "Captain, we've got an incoming signal. Laser transmission. The source is unidentified but the vector is consistent with the likely source of the jamming."

"Transmit the vector's likely point of origin to the other stations. Tactical, weapons, on standby. Navigation, orient our fore toward the transmitted coordinates and ready paths for advance and retreat. Ops, put the hangar team on immediate stand-by." Amuro was faintly shocked at how easily the words emerged from his mouth, and how dutifully the other officers went about their tasks, some sliding on headsets to make their jobs easier. His courage surged as he finished his round of response orders. "Communications, wait for a second hail. When it comes, respond to that."

"Aye aye," Johnny said. He wouldn't have admitted, but he was unexpectedly pleased by Amuro's performance in the captain's chair. Most of his decisions were the same ones he would've made, though he probably would have favored a less cautious style.

"Our pilots are almost good to go, there's some trouble lining up the Impulse blocks for deployment on the catapult," Witz said. "We'll work it out, but try not to get us attacked in the next ten minutes."

"Courses laid, executing thirty-five degree port side turn," Christina reported.

Gato's voice was dire. "The settlement's right between us and the likely location of the enemy ship. If we fight, it's at a disadvantage and with civilians in our way."

"This boat may not have much firepower, but it's good to go," Ed finished.

Amuro had little time to think over what he'd been told, even by his standards, when Johnny spoke again. "Receiving second hail, sir. Patching it through to the main screen..."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...


	10. Chapter 10

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars 

Chapter Synopsis: Dogos Gear gives White Base a brutal ultimatum, and Amuro is forced to make a very difficult decision.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Before contacting White Base, Scirocco had made some surprisingly similar decisions. Before making contact, he asked Olba, Flay, Stellar, and Clotho to leave the bridge, both so the Dogos Gear could project greater force while concealing some of its most truly deadly weapons. He allowed Garma to remain, just in case he was about to face some Zeon sympathizers who could use some undue influencing by the cause's most famous martyr. Quattro, Shagia, and Michelo rounded out the crew on the bridge as White Base accepted the signal and patched it through to their main monitors.

White Base's main screen was duly filled with a shot of the Dogos Gear's expansive carrier bridge, centered over the main command terminal. Scirocco sat in the captain's chair, at the very center of the image. Quattro sat at a chair at a console behind Scirocco, chair half-swiveled so that he could watch Dogos Gear's forward screen (which displayed a similar image of White Base's bridge) from the corner of one eye. Michelo was at a similar chair at Scirocco's other side, feet propped up on a console; Shagia and Garma sat at seats at the forward console stations.

Scirocco could not conceal a predatory smile as he saw exactly the man he was hoping would be fielded against him sitting in the opposing captain's chair, surrounded by men in bright Zeon uniforms. "Greetings, White Base."

Amuro was stricken at the sight of first Scirocco, and then Quattro. His eyes widened with the horror of a man seeing ghosts. "... you..." he breathed, softly.

"Ah, Ensign Amuro Ray," Scirocco continued. "I was expecting you. It's an honor to meet the hero of the One Year War, at long last."

"Captain Ray," Amuro corrected. His voice was terse, eyes hard. It was not entirely what Scirocco was expecting.

"You!" Garma hissed, eyes lighting on Amuro's image on his screen. His handsome young face distorted in undisguised hatred. "So you're the pilot of the 'White Devil'..."

Johnny stared at the screen in numb shock, as he saw a dead man rage on the other side of the screen. "Commander Garma..." Gato was too moved to speak; Christina was horrified.

Witz shot to his feet as he spotted Shagia in the forward chair. His face contorted in rage. "You! What're you doing here, asshole?"

Shagia merely raised an eyebrow at Witz's demonstration, and went through the motions of needing a few moments to remember who he was. Once recognition lit his eyes, his smile become smug. "Well, well. Aren't you an interesting choice."

"Ain't that the truth," Michelo grinned. He regarded Domon through slitted eyes, viper-like. Domon glowered back in cold, contemptuous defiance.

"Interesting?" Witz snarled. "That's all you have to say? Where's the other one, huh?"

"This environment is much too uncouth for my adorable little brother," Shagia said. His eyes were infuriatingly placid.

"You've got an angle on this," Witz said. His anger frustrated against Shagia's mild facade, he slid back down into his seat.

Garma's eyes widened in shock as he realized where were Zeon uniforms present on the enemy bridge. ".. that voice. The Crimson Lightning!" Stunned, Garma rose to his feet. "W.. what are you doing on the Trojan Horse? With the man.. the man who killed Elder Sister!"

He did not quite notice the sudden confusion on Johnny's face, and outright suspicion on Gato's. "... the man who what?" Johnny asked, stunned.

Amuro's brows furrowed as he realized what lie Garma had most likely been told by Quattro, or Scirocco, or quite possibly both of them. His jaw clenched in quiet fury. "I was at A Bao A Qu, but I didn't even see Kycilia Zabi," he said.

Garma clenched his fists. "Don't try to lie, Amuro Ray. You and your bastard father and that monster of a machine... I've learned what happened after you murdered me like a coward! You murdered my family and..." He paused, shaking with emotion as he glanced back at "Quattro". "... and my friends. Your family dared sully the honor of Zeon!"

Quattro could see that Garma was on the verge of hysterics, and playing right into Scirocco's hands without even realizing it. Quattro stood up and crossed the room, placing a restraining hand on the distraught young man's shoulder. "Garma," he said, trying to bring him back into an awareness of his surroundings. It felt like being back in Academy again.

It was perhaps too late to restrain the passions Garma's presence unleashed, though. "Forgive us, Lord Garma!" Gato exclaimed, standing. "We had no way of knowing what kind of monster this man truly was! He deceived us at every turn, concealed his identity and his motives."

Amuro began to look faintly ill, apprehension rising among the other White Base pilots gathered at the bridge. "Colonel Gato, please restrain yourself." Johnny spoke softly, obviously trying to keep the laser communication from picking up his voice.

He was apparently not successful. Garma's eyes were swiftly upon Johnny, trying to compose himself at the hideous sight of the famed Crimson Lightning apparently coming to the aid of the loathsome White Devil. "Commander Ridden.. he killed my brother, my sister, and tore Zeon apart. Why would you betray Elder Sister to aid the pilot of the Gundam?!"

Johnny's face seemed to pale slightly, his handsome features suddenly cooling into a strained mask. "... Commander Garma, I know you are a noble man and consumed by just anger. But... never again accuse me of betraying my Lady Kycilia. I would sooner die."

Garma seemed unable to grasp Johnny's strange and intense reaction to him. Quattro picked that moment to step in and try to defuse the situation again. "Garma. You're speaking from the deck of a Federation battleship. None of us were given a choice about our allies."

Johnny nodded, while privately wondering why Lord Garma was tolerating the attention of a man in a Federation uniform. "Captain Ray is no longer the White Devil we fought. If I don't miss my guess, anything we might do to him comes at least decade too late."

Gato glanced over at Johnny in sharp surprise, an expression mirrored by Amuro and Quattro.

Johnny, however, seemed confident in his deduction. "I learned from you, Colonel Gato, that Zeon lost the war and our people reduced to refugees by 0083. Lieutenant MacKenzie, who we know to be from the final days of 0079, has treated us as I'd expect an enemy combatant would. Captain Ray has evinced nothing but indifference. For a high-ranking Federal officer to feel like that... he must be from a time when the One Year War is little more than an unpleasant memory."

Gato and Christina were stunned; Amuro and Quattro were suddenly very uncomfortable. Johnny's logic seemed inescapable, and Amuro was not about to claim the man was wrong when he knew very well that he wasn't. If nothing else, the incident was obviously amusing Scirocco.

Garma glanced between the two blond men for a second before slumping back down in his seat. He struggled to regain his composure. "... Hmph. It appears you're right as always, Char."

Johnny's eyes flickered at the mention of the familiar name, though he said nothing. He reappraised the appearance of the Federation soldier in dark glasses who only stepped back to his chair when Lord Garma sat down. He had never seen nor met the famed Red Comet, Char Aznable, which merely meant he had no way of knowing for certain whether he lurked before him in Federation disguise.

Slowly, everyone on both bridges returned to their seats. Amuro was shaken, so badly that it took a great feat of will to keep his fingers from twitching from the force of the adrenaline rushing in his veins. "What do you want, Scirocco?" he asked.

Scirocco smiled as the passion play about him ended. Now it was time for business. "That should be obvious, Captain. I require your cooperation."

"Why the hell would we ally with you?" Ed asked, out of turn. After the outbursts before, nobody seemed offended. For Ed's part, although he could not recognize anyone aboard the Dogos Gear bridge, he had also seen much to make them all seem untrustworthy.

"It is obvious that a powerful force has drawn us all here. Do you mean to follow it mindlessly? Not even to investigate it?" Scirocco spoke with seductive logic.

"What's in it for you, Scirocco?" Amuro asked.

Scirocco's face warmed with condescending pity. "I doubt you'd understand what I mean to gain from this, being a failed Newtype. What you will understand is what it will mean to refuse me, as you sit there cowering behind a population center."

Amuro could feel the other Universal Century pilots tense up as Scirocco outed another of his secrets in the most inopportune way possible. He found himself sweating in his chair, trying to hold his composure. He didn't really care whether or not Scirocco thought him a failure, but if he couldn't keep control of the bridge then disaster waited for all of them.

Scirocco continued. "If you surrender to us, we can end this bloodlessly. The manipulator will reveal itself, and we can end this little charade and return to our homes. If not, you'll have brought a war down on these innocent people."

"But... if we surrender to you, then by the rules of the game, as the Beyonder stated them... you become the victor," Amuro said.

Scirocco nodded. "That's true, but I'd hope you of all people aren't so vainglorious that you'd fight simply to avoid accepting defeat."

Amuro's eyes narrowed. "And that means you would take the prize, Scirocco. Allowing that would betray everything I've spent my entire adult life working for."

"So you're refusing my offer of surrender?" Scirocco asked.

Amuro was not quite able to meet his eyes, and looked away. "... it's not my place to decide for everyone else, but..."

"Screw that!" Witz shouted. He turned back to Amuro. "That guy and his brother are warmongering assholes. We don't need to surrender to anybody who's enough of a bastard to take their side." He pointed viciously at Shagia across the monitor, who just blinked mildly.

"Fine words from a Vulture," Shagia murmured, "Who grows fat from the spoils of a war that went on long before my brother and I had any involvement in it."

"You said it," Ed added, ignoring Shagia's comment to agree with Witz.

"A man who has allied himself with Michelo Chariot is an honorless dog," Domon said. "Nothing he says can be trusted!"

Christina spoke first of the Universal Century pilots, hesitantly and softly. "... Captain Ray, even with all this, I still trust you more than I trust them. I'll support your decision."

Worryingly, Gato and Johnny said nothing. Scirocco seized upon to the silence to try and attack Amuro's credibility once again. "When you first claimed the Gundam, I recall Side Seven was destroyed shortly after. I see you're making the same decision once again, while daring to claim the moral high ground. You always seem to be claiming victory at someone else's expense, Captain Ray."

Quattro stood up again, not quite able to stay silent in the face of this onslaught anymore. Whatever rank Amuro was claiming now, he didn't strike Quattro as a man who could handle this kind of abuse and still hold on to command. "Amuro. It galls me to agree with Paptimus Scirocco, but the only way out of this is parley. We can not afford to turn this into a battle. "

The glance Amuro turned upon Quattro was withering, suffused with hatred to a startling degree. His voice seemed to just barely stay even. "Nothing is going to force your commander to attack us over this settlement. We could agree to engage elsewhere, after allowing our non-combatants to disembark. This option has not even been put on the table."

"Please, Captain Ray," Scirocco laughed. "I am quite aware that there are no non-combatants aboard these ships. Your surrender is the only option... I hardly trust you enough to offer my own surrender. If you wish to prove your high ideals are more than just pretty words, you know what you must do."

"Noisy bastard!" Domon suddenly exclaimed from the back of the room. He strode forward, his face suffused with annoyance and anger. "Who are you to talk of cowardice, when you try to force our surrender by threatening civilians?! Amuro Ray said nothing of engaging in battle. If anyone is hiding behind those people, it's you!"

Scirocco turned a cool eye toward Domon. "He rebuffed my offer of truce. It was a difficult one to make... consider that your leader is one of the most prominent terrorists of our time."

"So you say," Domon sneered. "And you have yet to demonstrate that you are a man of truth or honor."

Michelo had spent much of the preceding arguments looking bored, but his eyes lit up when Domon entered the fray. He sat upright, smiling like a tiger. "That honor bullshit is what's gonna get you killed here, Neo-Japan. There's no Gundam Fight Committee here. Take the field against me and I'll be scraping your cockpit off my Gundam's boots."

Such a violent intrusion badly disrupted Scirocco's control over the proceedings. Johnny seized on it to play a gambit that, though dangerous, might be able to stall disaster for just a little bit longer. "Commander Garma, this is a poor way for us to communicate. A lot of old grudges are here, but you and I have no reason to fight each other. Before White Base as a ship can parley with Dogos Gear honestly, you should meet the men of Zeon aboard this ship, face to face."

"It is true that you would be safer here, with us, than aboard a remorseless Federal ship," Gato agreed.

Amuro realized this was, likewise, his chance to try and frustrate Scirocco's ambition. "Johnny, if you and Gato want to go to Garma's side or bring him aboard White Base, it could be arranged. I'm sure no one aboard this ship would object to open communication with the other side." He paused, then spoke again, voice grave. "He's not safe where he is, I can promise you that."

Garma eyed Amuro suspiciously, but his response to Johnny was still cooperative enough. "Commander Ridden, I.. don't wish to fight you either. Elder Sister would never forgive me."

Scirocco saw quite clearly what Amuro and Johnny were trying to pull, and grimaced. It was highly inconvenient at best. "So, Captain Ray, can I assume there is no chance of peace?"

"What could surrender even mean in a deliberately meaningless war?" Johnny said, glowering coldly at Scirocco. "Let Commander Garma meet us face to face, on this ship. If you can give us that sign of good faith, then I believe the people aboard this ship will be able to reconsider your offer."

Amuro closed his eyes, briefly. When he opened them, his voice was steady and his calm had returned. "You've heard them, Scirocco. No peace on your terms unless you first allow Garma Zabi to parley with us aboard White Base."

Garma was staggered as he saw himself suddenly the focus of the tense negotiations, and behavior from Amuro that made absolutely no sense to him. "The White Devil is inviting me aboard the Trojan Horse? If you were not aboard, Crimson Lightning, I would believe it a trap..."

Scirocco glanced from Garma to the monitor and sighed. He'd simply have to work with this. "Very well, Captain. I shall let Garma Zabi take this risk upon himself, though I must insist on arranging an escort."

"I'll go," Quattro said. "I am a Federal officer, after all." For the first time since coming aboard the Dogos Gear, he smiled.

Amuro's jaw clenched as he watched Quattro take advantage of the situation. It took a great force of effort, but he managed to say nothing, although his face darkened.

Garma glanced at Quattro for a second, and then glanced back at Amuro through the viewscreen. "If... Quattro.. agrees to come along, then yes, I'll head to the Trojan Horse," he replied with a hesitant nod.

Scirocco smiled, if now through gritted teeth. "Well, then. It seems we've come to an amicable solution after all."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...


	11. Chapter 11

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base demands answers from Amuro, and the Frosts begin to set their plans into motion.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The tension on White Base was palpable as the communication with the Dogos Gear terminated. They had six hours to prepare to receive Quattro Baijinas and Garma Zabi. In the meantime, though, all eyes were on Amuro Ray in the captain's chair, with Scirocco and Garma's many accusations in mind.

"It's time to come clean, Captain Ray," Gato said. His eyes were cold as he rose from his seat, and his voice full of restrained menace.

Johnny's demeanor was more impersonal, but he obviously shared Gato's sentiment. "Start by telling us about this 'Paptimus Scirocco'. You seem to be acquainted."

Amuro glanced around the room. Ed and Domon seemed ready to respond in kind to any Zeon hostility that went beyond harsh words. Christina looked hurt, which bothered him far more than the Zeon saber-rattling. Witz's expression was somewhat unreadable; perhaps, true to his mercenary nature, he was staying out of the conflict so long as it didn't concern him.

It seemed like a time to be conciliatory, or at least cooperative. "Paptimus Scirocco is the head of the Jupiter Energy Fleet in the time period he's clearly from... UC 0087, I would imagine. By then the Earth Federation had grown immensely paranoid and corrupt. Scirocco used their fear to his advantage, and tried to seize control of the Federation."

Amuro took a deep breath before he continued. He hadn't thought about these things in a long time, because it accomplished little other than adding to an already immense store of personal anger. Speaking of them was not, ordinarily, something he would do by choice. "... I am from UC 0093, and by my time, Paptimus Scirocco is long since dead. His defeat carried a heavy cost in human life. He's a powerful Newtype, a skillful tactician, a mechanical genius... dangerous in every way, and wholly without any sense of compassion."

"Back up, back up," Ed asked. "Explain the Newtype thing."

"Are you serious?" Witz asked.

"Yes, I am serious," Ed said. He was more than a little annoyed by Witz's response. "What the hell's a Newtype? It sounds like genetic engineering."

"What?" Amuro asked, startled. "No, it's... no, it's not that at all."

"They're ESPers," Johnny said. "Believed to have any number of paranormal abilities... usually precognitive abilities, superior ability to process information, and inhuman reflexes when in command of a Mobile Suit."

"How the condition emerges is not understood," Gato added, "but the pilots are so valuable that entire new forms of weaponry are emerging, purely for their use. I've heard it said the dawn of Newtypes is the death of Mobile Suit combat as we know it."

"Huh." Ed rubbled his stubbly chin, deep in thought.

"... is that it?" Witz asked again. "Where I'm from, Newtypes... Newtypes are psychics, yeah, but they can do..." He paused, trying to think of a word to sum up all of the stories about Newtypes he'd heard, and all of the things he'd seen. "... anything." He glanced furtively at Amuro. "If we're supposed to fight an evil one, we'd better be damned grateful we've got one that's not evil." Gato snorted. "That's a matter of opinion, Mr. Sou."

"To hell with this crap," Ed said, after a moment of thought. "Newtype, Coordinator... it doesn't mean anything. We should be making plans to beat Scirocco, and to hell with the rest of us this."

"Captain Ray has concealed a great deal from us," Johnny said, by way of rebuttal.

"From you!" Ed snapped. "And what does it matter to me? What I want to know is, why are you assholes playing a game of he-said she-said when there's an enemy pointing beam cannons at our face?"

A certain zeal died in the eyes of the two angry Zeon officers. Ed's fury was hard to argue with, given the relentless practicality of their situation. There was still a sense of backpedaling when next they spoke.

Still, both Gato and Johnny were too proud to capitulate immediately.  
"In a situation like this, we need to be able to feel like we trust the people we're going to be fighting with," Johnny said.

"You don't build trust with accusations, any more than you build it with deceptions." Christian's voice was an unexpected interruption, soft but firm. "For now, we need to be allies, so let's forget this and move forward."

"Though I suppose you've a point, in that none of Captain Ray's treachery was immediate... fine, we'll continue this discussion once Lord Garma is safely in our custody." Gato's demeanor was more acid, and his remaining hostility more open, than Johnny's. Still, he returned to his seat, though he refused to look in Amuro's direction.

Amuro was willing to settle for that much of a concession from such an implacable personality, and felt quiet gratitude for Ed and Christina's intervention. This sort of a scene had been exactly what he'd spent his time aboard White Base trying to avoid, and he felt foolish for underestimating Johnny's cunning so badly. "Witz," Amuro said. "Is there anything we should know about that man you recognized on bridge?"Witz scowled. "Shagia Frost. He pretends to be working with the New Earth Federation, but he and his brother are playing everyone for chumps. They want another war, and if they get it they could end up killing off the human race for good."

"A fine ally for a Federation butcher," Gato snorted.

"They're not really his allies... not if this Scirocco guy is a Newtype," Witz said. "We-- I mean, me and my pack of Vultures-- we're trying to protect real Newtypes from those two back home. I don't know what they're trying to pull, but there's no reason why they couldn't do it here."

"Do they have any way of knowing Scirocco's a Newtype?" Amuro asked.

"Uh... maybe." Witz gave this subject some careful thought, though it was obviously not something he'd expended great mental effort upon before. "They're... Category F. Weird psychics who aren't as good as a real Newtype, but still have some powers. They can do telepathic stuff, I know that... so for all I know, they've got some kind of Newtype-detecting power."

"Then they'd know about Char, too, wouldn't they..." Amuro murmured.

Johnny blinked at that. Amuro's offhand comment absolutely confirmed two things, or at least it seemed to: that the Red Comet was for some reason masquerading as a Federation officer, and that Char Aznable was himself a Newtype. Such power was certainly consistent with Aznable's fearsome reputation, but he wasn't a part of Lady Kycilia's Newtype Corps.

That meant that either she didn't know of Aznable's power, or that he was receiving special treatment for some reason. Either situation was one he felt he needed to know more about. He wanted to ask many more questions of Amuro, who seemed to know everything a man from UC 0079 might need, but the current strained situation allowed for little.

"So Lord Garma was correct when he referred to that Federation soldier by the Red Comet's name?" Johnny asked, hoping for confirmation.

Amuro looked up, as out of deep thought. A curious expression passed over his face as he answered, dark and clouded with some tangential emotion. Amuro's actual answer sounded almost distracted. "Oh? Yes, Quattro Baijinas is just another pseudonym for Char Aznable, you can be sure of that."

Even Gato, ever-ready to believe the best of Zeonic heroes, arched an eyebrow at that. Johnny made a mental note to make sure he got more information about the situation out of Amuro later, when Scirocco has been dealt with. The thought that he might not survive the upcoming battle never even pass through Johnny Ridden's mind.

"What's our procedure for bringing Garma Zabi and... ah, Lieutenant Baijinas on board going to be?" Christina asked.

Amuro scratched his chin as he thought it over. "Domon, your specialty is hand-to-hand combat, correct?"

"That's what it means to be a Gundam Fighter," Domon nodded.

"I don't trust Scirocco... or his allies, judging from what I'm hearing... not to try an anti-personnel action when Garma comes on board." Amuro spoke a little slowly, obviously thinking aloud. "I think it might be good to have you on hand and ready for something like that should it happen, Domon... and that we should keep Shin and the others in their Mobile Suits, ready for an emergency deployment."

Domon nodded in quiet assent. "I am no soldier, but I'll permit nothing that would allow the Beyonder to spread death and destruction with his game. I will be ready."Amuro nodded, although it felt like a ridiculously informal reaction to such a speech. "... well, then. Commander Ridden, Major Gato, what do you think?"

"Commander Garma won't betray us," Johnny said, firmly. "Char... the man's reputation doesn't lead me to trust him. He wouldn't risk a betrayal while Garma was present. I can't speak for anything else about the situation."

"We should receive Lord Garma and... Commander Aznable, upon their arrival. With Mr. Kasshu alongside for security, of course," Gato said. When he was being dispassionate and rational, as he appeared now, Amuro could almost see something of an admirable soldier in Anavel Gato. It made his fits of zealotry all the more disconcerting.

"If it's okay, can I suit up and be ready to deploy with Airmaster?" Witz asked. "No offense, but I want more than a couple kids and a mechanic between my ship and the Frost Brothers."

"That's not a bad idea," Amuro mused.

"You should also suit up and be ready to deploy with your Gundam, Captain," Johnny advised.

This drew a blink of surprise and a sharp glance from Amuro, prompting Johnny to explain himself. "Lord Garma, as we saw, utterly detests you. If he's going to remain aboard the ship, he must deal with the fact that the White Devil is aboard. He might as well confront what you now, when he arrives... or it will only cause more trouble in the future." The way Johnny spoke was very pointed; clearly, he was calling for Amuro not to repeat his earlier deception by omission.

Amuro desperately did not want to do that. To face Garma Zabi in pilot's dress meant facing the monstrous and painful mistakes of his youth, unavoidable and yet inexpiable. Of course, to refuse would only worsen his position with the crew, though even the others seemed to grasp that Johnny was suggesting something very confrontational. Both Christina and Gato seemed on the verge of trying to argue with Johnny.

Amuro decided not to let them. "Very well... I'll defer to you on how to deal with a Zeon dignitary. It'll give Witz and myself a chance to brief the other pilots about the situation."

"... I would prefer to do so myself, but I suppose this is unavoidable," Gato said. "Above all, we must only deploy if necessary. Any treachery from Scirocco must be met with force, but we also must not betray Lord Garma's trust."

"I'll remain on the bridge to monitor the enemy ship," Christina said. "Commander Zabi and Lieutenant Baijinas are going to end up traveling down the firing line of the Dogos Gear's main cannons. We need to be ready to move against the other ship at the moment's notice."

"Lemme stay up here with you to man the weapons, then," Ed offered. "I've got no use for diplomacy, and this stuff's got no other use for me."

"Are you going to behave with decorum, Commander Harrelson?" Christina asked.

"Oh, geez, Chris, I already apologized for that..." Ed said, right on the verge of outright whining.

Christina smiled a little, now that she was sure he was properly contrite and not just looking for a chance to fraternize. Although Ed had given her little reason to distrust him since that first awkward encounter, she had a hard time letting go of that unfavorable first impression.

"Then it sounds like we know our roles," Amuro said. "Let's get to work."

-X-X-X-

There was no argument aboard the Dogos Gear to parallel White Base's internal strife. Instead there was the sort of quiet resentment that, given time, inevitably nurses itself into betrayal. Scirocco had little doubt that Quattro intended to betray him the moment he was off the ship, with Garma as little more than an excuse to join the other side. Quattro had little doubt that Scirocco eventually meant to kill him anyway, and at least hoped to find a few useful allies among the more level-headed crew Amuro appeared to have assembled.

Scirocco instead hovered over Garma and Quattro like a lean, pale predator as they went through every phase of preparing for their departure. With Michelo at his side to add physical threat to his decress, Scirocco successfully strong-armed Quattro into leaving his Hyaku Shiki behind as the price of his freedom. Both men would be traveling in Garma's custom Zaku, easily the weakest machine in the Dogos Gear contingent, and hardly an asset to the other side. This did not satisfy Scirocco or Quattro either one that Quattro's inherent danger had been neutralized; both men were confident that Quattro would simply find something else to pilot. It was still a dangerous sign of the confrontation that was to come.

Garma was largely oblivious to the danger, instead investing his time in a tearful good-bye to Flay (who found herself having difficulty dredging up the appropriate sadness), and coming up with plans to convince White Base to surrender that were only feasible within the confines of his own mind. He was cognizant of the danger he was in, and the delicacy of the politics between the two ships, but with the brashness of youth he didn't connect these ideas to the possibility of his own death.

The Frost Brothers, meanwhile, found that it was finally time to begin making their first grand maneuver after so many long days of watching, waiting, and manipulating. Fevered conversations bounced from mind to mind as they weighed the value of the various pawns available to them, judged their likely reactions, and worked out both an ideal sequence of events and various contingencies. After a few hours, they were ready to embark upon the series of moves that, ideally, would leave them in uncontested control of the Dogos Gear.

-X-X-X-

The effort was twofold. First, Olba descended to the lower decks to pay a visit to Flay and her coterie of genetically altered young pilots. Stellar had begun requesting trips to get exercise aboard the ship, and Flay was glad for a reason to disappear somewhere remote with people she felt absolutely safe around. They had found a small workout area, and there the girls worked on building muscle while Clotho idly played his games. At first Flay had worried that Clotho was following simply to leer at them, but she had found that once presented with a video game, he became utterly indifferent to most of the outside world. Olba interrupted one such session, when the girls were working on a machine designed to mimic the health benefits of skiing. Stellar always soared on the machine for longer periods of time, with greater resistance, than Flay could even comprehend a girl her size possessing without being some sort of coordinator. Flay usually began to pant and run out of energy at least a good hour before Stellar even broke a sweat, and Olba's appearance gave her a good excuse to give up the workout just as the going got rough.

"You seem to be working very hard," Olba smiled at her, eyeing the jogging pants and tank-top she'd scavenged from the ship's lockers with quiet appreciation.

Flay tried not to pant too unbecomingly hard. "Just because I'm trapped on this ship doesn't mean I'm going to let myself get out of shape."

"Of course," Olba said. He glanced around to Clotho and Stellar, who both seemed to be ignoring him in favor of their own pursuits, before he spoke again. "What do you make of Garma's departure?"

Flay's expression twisted into a frown despite herself. In truth, she was intensely jealous of Garma finding such an easy exit from the ship. She had hoped and prayed that she might find Kira or someone from the Archangel aboard the enemy "White Base", but upon reviewing the footage she found nothing but unfamiliar faces, and certainly no rescues. Yet Garma did have friends waiting aboard the other ship, eager to protect and serve him, so he was all but getting to waltz away from the Dogos Gear effortlessly. No, she was not merely jealous of Garma; she was furious that he was about to be granted the wish she had so fervently hoped for.

"After making such a big deal about wanting to help us, he seems awfully eager to run off and join the enemy," Flay finally sniffed.

"Indeed," Olba nodded. His voice was soft, but his eyes had grown dark and intense. "We can move without him, if we need to... and very soon."

Flay blinked at him, quizzically. The conspiracy hadn't seemed so near to taking action. "How soon do you mean?"

"The battle," Olba said. "Trust me, we will be fighting the other ship in less than twenty-four hours. Scirocco makes his preparations even now."

"What do you want me to do?" Flay asked.

"Stay aboard the bridge. Don't let Scirocco instruct you to deploy, no matter what. From there, simply do as we ask you."

Flay shrugged, as if this request meant nothing at all to her. She even tossed a bit of her bright red hair over one shoulder to emphasize how casual her answer was. "That's going to be easy. Of course, I'll do it."

"Are your... friends going to follow your lead?" Olba asked, glancing at Stellar and Clotho sidelong.

Stellar seemed to be ignoring the conversation that took place over the quiet roar of the exercise machine, but Clotho abruptly glanced up and gazed at Olba, evenly. Although his eyes were still dead and spiritless, there was a flicker of intelligence in them.

"She's the boss. I do what she says." That said, he immediately glanced back down at the screen of his game system and went back to playing, as if that was all he had ever done and all he should ever do.  
Olba blinked in surprise at Clotho's sudden response. Flay merely flashed a smug smile at him. "See? Like I said, it'll be easy."

-X-X-X-

The second fork of plan was put into motion by Shagia, who tracked Scirocco down in the Dogos Gear's spacious hangar. After making it quite clear that Quattro wouldn't be taking the Hyaku Shiki off of the ship, he had vengefully opened up the cockpit and begun ransacking its blueprints for technical information. There he remained, and would likely stay until the time came for him to get some sleep in the small hours that remained before Quattro and Garma departed.

"Captain Scirocco!" Shagia called from the floor.

Scirocco answered without bothering to bring his body visibly out of the cockpit's recessed seat. "What is it, Shagia?" he replied. As Shagia hoped, his voice was distracted.

"There's something I wished to discuss with you."

"In a moment," Scirocco called back. It was closer to five minutes before he tore himself away from the readouts of the Hyaku Shiki's inner workings, and lowered himself back down to the ground so he could respond to Shagia's concern more properly.

Shagia tried to conciliatory. "My apologies for interrupting."

"Think nothing of it," Scirocco said. It was the voice reserved for a loyal servant, and exactly what Shagia wanted to hear.

"It's about the deal we made with White Base. I was just wondering..."

"... if I was going to let Garma and Quattro get away with this sort of treachery?" Scirocco asked. His smile was tight and vicious.

Shagia laughed, softly. "It was a concern, but I see you are one step ahead of me. If I could, I would like to know how you intended to use this to our advantage."

"Let them go. Wait for White Base to settle into a false sense of security. Mount an attack." Scirocco smiled. "It's so obvious, I imagined you would've known that was the gambit."

"I had an inkling. But if it is so obvious... what of Lieutenant Baijinas? Surely he must suspect."

Scirocco began casually loosening the collar of the jumpsuit he was wearing. It was one of the few times Shagia had seen him looking slightly less than regal. "Oh, I am sure he does. For that matter, White Base might even figure it out... but they've all accepted that idiot Garma as a stone about their necks. Even if they know we're likely to attack, they'll be too busy tending to his safety to be completely prepared for an immediate assault."

Shagia smiled appreciatively. It was, in truth, not at all a bad scheme. "I see... a brute force solution to the problem."

"Sometimes the simple solutions are best."

Shagia's expression became more furtive. "If brute force is to be the solution, then, Captain Scirocco... I feel there is something I should tell you."

"Go on," Scirocco said.

"You are aware that the settlement we found here is very much like something from my home world." Scirocco nodded, and Shagia continued. "If this world is as much like mine as I believe it to be, there is an enormously powerful weapon we could turn against White Base as well."

Scirocco's interest was peaked. "Explain."

"In my world, Newtypes came to be the center of Mobile Suit combat. There was a remote facility, placed on the moon..." Shagia began. It was hard to banish the yearning from his voice as he spoke. "It controlled an high-intensity microwave array that could, theoretically, strike at any point on Earth when properly aligned with the Earth. The properly alignment happens when the moon is full... as, I have noticed, it will be for the next few days."

"It's a fantastic prospect, Shagia Frost, but we hardly have time for a trip to the moon if we're to strike White Base quickly," Scirocco said.

"We needn't take one. Captain Scirocco, you've examined my Virsago and my brother's Ashtaron... you know there are systems there that ordinary humans cannot access. It is a Flash System, intended for use by Newtypes..."

Scirocco blinked. "You want me to pilot one of your machines?"

"No, no," Shagia shook his head. His whole body grew more animated as he spoke, in a way that might convey sincerity. "The interface is different, there would be perhaps too little time for even you to adapt... but Captain Scirocco, the Flash System needs only to recognize a Newtype signature in order to activate. When fully ready, it transmits that signature to the lunar base at the speed of thought..."

Scirocco tapped his chin with one finger, thoughtful. "You want to use a pre-recorded signature? Hm. There are theories about devices that could do that, though they're all very experimental where I'm from. Does your Flash System have such a capability?"

"It does. The recording would take but a few moments We could array ourselves before White Base, as if to attack... and then our Satellite Cannon would finish the job." Shagia presented this option to Scirocco hopefully.

Scirocco did seem to like the sound of it, although his smile was perhaps a little clever as he regarded Shagia. "If this weapon is so powerful, what's to keep you from turning it against me? Or the Dogos Gear, for that matter. You could wipe out all of the other combatants entirely, and claim victory to the Beyonder yourself."

Shagia shook his head. "An impossibility. The Satellite Cannon is too imprecise... it is perfect for eliminating a large target like White Base, but any individual Mobile Suits could overwhelm Ashtalon as the Cannon charged. That is why I waited until after the meeting to mention this to you, Captain... I did not want to reveal this weapon and its weakness until I knew with certainty whether or not I should trust myself and my brother to your leadership."

"Oh, but now I've proven myself to you," Scirocco said. He still seemed amused. "Hm. You said the Cannon was in Ashtaron?"

"Yes, exactly."

"But both machines have Flash Systems that can hold Newtype data."

"Yes... Virsago is something of a back-up unit. It can offer limited defensive support to Ashtaron while it charges, or dock with it to provide external energy in case of damage," Shagia lied. In truth, the strain of targeting the Satellite Cannon was so great, that Virsago existed purely to house the targeting and transmission arrays required to make Ashtaron's Satellite Cannon function properly. "You've seen its weapon arrays yourself. It can do nothing that isn't easily explicable by examining its core body."

"I had been wondering about those transformation points on the body..." Scirocco murmured. "Well, if Ashtaron can hold the data, then I feel the only prudent course to take is to give my Newtype signature to your brother's machine alone."

Shagia made a point of looking suddenly crestfallen, and intimidated. "Ah. Is that so..."

It was exactly what Scirocco wanted to hear. He stepped nearer Shagia, his manner giving the impression of friendliness. "I would hate to see your brother come to harm, Shagia Frost... but consider my position. If your weapon is indeed on the moon and operational, I can't have you firing it without proper authorizations. This simply gives me a way of knowing if you intend to do anything treacherous with the data. My sixth sense or the Messala's sensory array would detect any unauthorized transmissions from the Virsago to the Ashtaron."

Shagia felt strangely compelled to take Scirocco's words seriously, for all he rationally knew that Scirocco had every reason to lie to him. A part of his mind recognized this as a Newtype power, gently trying to insinuate Scirocco's desires into his very brainwaves. If he had been a true Newtype and not a mere Category F, Shagia might have been swayed.

Instead, he shrugged off the unnatural influence, and reverted to his original plan. Although Scirocco could not know it, he was actually playing into Shagia's hands. "I see... yes, I understand," Shagia said. His voice was humbled, his posture less perfectly proud and tall. "I shall let our actions in the battle speak to you of our loyalty, Captain Scirocco. Ashtaron shall bear the Newtype data into battle."

"Answering for your brother?" Scirocco asked.

"There is no other answer," Shagia said emphatically. "What is best for us is to return to our world as quickly as possible. Olba will understand that... and if there is no lunar base here as I hope, all of this shall be for nothing. If there is, it is in our interests to follow you to the game's end."

"Good man," Scirocco said, pleased that Shagia was apparently willing to play by his rules. "If your Satellite Cannon can be made to work, then we can end this quickly and all get back to our proper business."

"Indeed," Shagia agreed, smiling in an ingratiating manner. It was hard not to reflect the smug triumph he felt in the depths of his soul, now that Scirocco had fallen completely into his trap.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-


	12. Chapter 12

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Garma and Quattro depart the Dogos Gear, and Scirocco springs his trap. White Base responds, and the first battle of the Gundam War is joined.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans may follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"This is such crap," Shin Asuka groaned.

He had opted to wait out the negotiations in his cockpit because he believe a fight was inevitable at this point. Captain Ray and the newcomer Witz's report, that Zeon diplomacy was going to add another delay and introduce a possible hostage situation, made him want to punch something. This was, ordinarily, an urge he would indulge, but the delicate instrumentation in the Core Splendor's cockpit wouldn't be quite up to the strain.

Loran and Lowe were taking news of the delay much better, and chattered back and forth to each other in that Pollyanna way of theirs. Johnny Ridden and Anavel Gato had moved into the hangar on a squat, ugly service vehicle. They now stood by it with the flamboyant if silent Domon Kasshu, while Witz Sou took to the cockpit of his Airmaster. Captain Ray was only spotted some time after, scrupulously fastening the collar of his Normal Suit as he moved toward nu Gundam's cockpit.

The pieces were all in place, and how it was a matter of waiting. Shin utterly detested waiting. He idly opened a channel and broadcast both over his external communication speaks and the ultra-shortwave frequencies the Mobile Suits used to communicate. "How much longer is this going to take?"

"We don't know," Amuro responded curtly. "We're supposed to be get word from the bridge once Dogos Gear notifies them of the transfer."

"Relax," Lowe urged. "If they're on the up-and-up, we won't end up doing anything at all."

"And while I admire your willingness to ensure Lord Garma's safety, gentlemen," Gato's voice broke in, "It is far more to our advantage if there is no fighting this day." He was apparently speaking over the utility vehicle's ultra-shortwave transmitter.

"Bridge to hangar, please respond," came Christina's voice from their transmitters.

Gato had not quite had time to put the transmitter's mouthpiece back on its hangar. His brows knit, and responded before any of the other pilots could. "Bridge, this is hangar. What's the situation?"

"No transmission from the Dogos Gear, but there is Mobile Suit activity there. One MS deployed, it appears to be a Zeon Zaku-II of customized make."

"Probably Lord Garma's personal MS," Johnny murmured.

"That was my guess. It's lightly armed and heading for White Base at cruising speed... Commander Ridden, Lieutenant Gato, could I patch one of you through to hail him?" Christina asked.

"Of course," Gato said. He was quietly impressed by Christina's quick wits and sense of tact, though this was hardly the time nor place for praise. "I'll speak with him."

"Then give me a moment to arrange the communication on my end, Lieutenant Gato," Christina said, before her voice lapsed into silence.

-X-X-X-

Garma's custom Zaku made progress toward the White Base at a speed that felt like a slow crawl. The cockpit was cramped, leaving Quattro to stand behind the pilot's seat in a painfully hunched posture. Garma's discomfort in the pilot's seat was all too obvious.

Scirocco had insisted that they move to the halfway point between the two ships and stop before hailing White Base and asking permission to come aboard. Even Garma could smell a set-up in that command. It left Scirocco with plenty of time to mobilize his MS forces or prepare an artillery attack, and very little they could do about either. Quattro hoped for time to switch places with Garma at the halfway point, but his intuitive told him that if Scirocco attacked, it would be with a swiftness designed to prevent such a maneuver.

They were far from the designated halfway point when lights on the Zaku's control panels blinked and sensors beeped, announcing an incoming audio-only communication. Garma fumbled to answer it and keep his Zaku moving.

"This is Lieutenant Anavel Gato, currently stationed at White Base. Pilot, please identify yourself."

"Lieutenant Gato!" Garma exclaimed. "Rest assured, nothing is amiss. I, Garma Zabi, am piloting my own MS. Lieutenant Quattro," he spoke haltingly for a moment, "is riding with me as passenger."

"What is your situation, Lord Garma? We heard nothing from the Dogos Gear before you deployed."

"We were told they had hailed you before we left..." Quattro answered.

"You have been deceived," Gato said. His voice was dark and angry. "We have men ready to deploy, Lord Garma. They could escort you to the Base."

"Please," Garma replied, relief in his voice.

Quattro immediately sensed danger in those words. "No! If the Dogos Gear intends to betray us, a deployment would..."

There was a squawk of static, and an unwelcome third voice entered broke in on the communication line. "Don't bother continuing your charade, Lieutenant Bageena. Now I see how eager the two of you are to betray us..."

"Scirocco!" Quattro cursed aloud.

"Don't send men unless you want to see them killed, White Base." Scirocco's voice was cold with authority.

The Dogos Gear's silhouette loomed over the lone Zaku, even at this great distance. Though the process could not be seen, Quattro's Newtype senses began to scream danger at him. The hangar bay doors were opening, the catapults ready to launch a deadly payload of enemy MS.

-X-X-X-

Gato went pale with horror and fury as Scirocco's dread ultimatum echoed throughout the hangar. "No..."

"And the trap is sprung," Johnny hissed.

Christina's voice crackled to life over the still-open communication channel. "Please try to stay alive, Commander Zabi! We're going to send units to support you!"

Ed's voice crackled to life over the speakers in nu Gundam's cockpit. "Want us to move in, Captain? We could try laying down cover fire."

"No." Amuro's answer was immediate. "Stay at your station, Ed, but the Dogos Gear would have the advantage in an artillery battle. Don't open fire until fired upon."

He could hear Ed sigh, a noise the transmission rendered crackly. "Alright. Just don't forget about us."

On the floor, Gato recovered from his shock quickly, a moment's terror transformed into fury with lightning speed. "Lieutenant MacKenzie! How soon can you have the catapults ready for launch?"

"They're ready now!" she responded. "If we deploy the fastest units first, I think we can save him!"

"We'll move at your command, Lieutenant MacKenzie," Amuro spoke from his cockpit.

"What of the rest of us?" Domon suddenly asked. Sensing a battle, he seemed eager to join it.

"If we tried to launch now, we'd just be in the way," Johnny said. "Let the others deploy, and we'll suit up as we need to. Response time is of the essence now."

Domon frowned slightly, obviously unhappy with the thought of staying on the ship while others fought. Of course, he also knew a man's life was at stake. "As you say, Johnny Ridden," Domon said. "For now."

"Shin, prepare the Impulse Flyers for deployment," Christina commanded him from the bridge.

Although a complex process on the Minerva, the Beyonder had automated this the way he'd automated many of the basic ship functions. Arranging the Force Silhouette for deployment and commanding the Flyers to follow him in formation required little more than the press of a few buttons from his cockpit. "Done. I'm heading for the catapult!" Shin announced.

His petulance melted in the face of a chance for action, and his rigorous training at ZAFT's military academy immediately surfaced. He taxied to the linear catapult with ease that seemed practiced, the various Flyers following him in a precise line. His body tensed as he felt the catapult clamp on to the Core Splendor, then begin to accelerate it down the long launch ramp.

"Shin Asuka, Impulse! Launching!"

-X-X-X-

Garma wheeled his Zaku around to face the Dogos Gear. He hadn't taken the machine's drum-fed 150mm machine gun with him, since he was ostensibly on a mission of peace. The only weapon he had at hand was the machine's Heat Hawk, which seemed somehow small and pitiful as he pulled it off of its storage rack on the Zaku's armor skirt.

"We don't have a chance in open battle," Quattro said. "Our only hope is to draw them toward White Base and rendezvous with our support fighters."

"Yes... yes, of course," Garma answered. His voice was numb, he could already feel himself sweating.

"Don't fall apart on me. You know you can do this," Quattro said. It felt uncomfortably like he was trying to coach Garma through Academy exercises again.

Still, he had the desired effect. Garma steeled himself, preparing the Zaku for evasive maneuvers. The terrain was against them, essentially an open plain. Still, if White Base moved quickly enough, if he could buy enough time, they might have a chance.

Quattro could feel the enemies launching before the Zaku's intruments could register. Two machines, impossibly faster than the Zaku could manage... the pilots lacked the distinct pressure of a Newtype, and yet there was something about them that made his "third eye" twinge.

"It's the Frosts," Quattro said, just as Virsago and Ashtalon's silhouettes appeared in the air. Their thrusters appeared powerful enough to allow for atmospheric flight, by itself an enormous advantage over the humble Zaku's maneuvering capabilities.

The Zaku began to back slowly away, waiting for incoming fire that never came. Instead, the two Gundams touched down on the ground before them. Never before had Virsago's demonic lines seemed quite so imposing, or Ashtaron's bulk quite so monstrous.

"Garma Zabi," came Shagia's voice over their open communications line. "I hope you'll have the grace to surrender."

"Surrender?" Garma replied, indignant. "We're going to negotiate with the enemy! We're barely even armed, let alone a threat to the Dogos Gear!"

"You all but invited White Base to attack us," Olba accused.

"Our send-off from Scirocco was hardly comforting!" Garma spat.

Quattro was silent, deep in though. The moment the Frosts began talking instead of fighting, he began running over the options in his head. Could Scirocco be using Garma as bait for White Base? Units launching for emergency rendezvous would probably be emerging one at a time, in pairs at best. A situation where it could be easy for Scirocco's men to pick them off by force of numbers... two already on the ground, probably two more ready to launch...

That had to be it. Even a unit with an otherwise profound technology or pilot skill advantage could easily be picked off it was attempting to fight a gang alone, with a long and vulnerable unit to protect. He'd even fallen for it himself, hadn't he? So worried about keeping Garma from doing something stupid, that he'd been little more than a puppet on Scirocco's strings...

Quattro's guess was indeed correct, though one of the Frosts were having a hard time playing along with their instructions. #Let me kill them, brother,# Olba hissed in Shagia's mind.

#Too soon. We need to draw Scirocco onto the battlefield before we play our hand,# Shagia's thoughts tried to be soothing.

Olba did not respond as well as he usually might. His mild dislike of Garma had grown into hatred, and once enthroned in Ashtaron's cockpit it seemed so hard, so pointless, to restrain himself. #They are already coming. It makes no difference...#

#It would arouse suspicions. Patience.# Shagia projected authority, closing the matter. He spoke again with his voice, to try and keep the situation under control just a little bit longer. A silent pause had followed Garma's last protest, and it was surely making the other man chafe. "But haven't you confirmed our worries? Perhaps we could take your words at face value if you would open your cockpit, and you and Lieutenant Quattro would surrender yourselves..."

"Ridiculous--!" Garma began. He stopped in mid-sentence, as Quattro put a hand on his shoulder.

Quattro's voice was low and urgent. "This is a farce. Garma, run."

Garma glanced back at him in silent incomprehension.

Shagia's voice broke over the communication channel. "Garma Zabi? ... Quattro Bageena?" From his end he heard only silence, and it did not sit well with him.

"Run," Quattro repeated. "Due north. Trust me."

Shagia's expression shifted from confusion to pale-faced outrage as Garma's comms line stayed quiet. Yet, his forward cameras clearly depicted the humble Zaku suddenly wheeling around and surging away from Ashtalon and Virsago with a leap assisted by its backpack thrusters. It was an impossibly audacious move for a miserable man such as Garma Zabi to come up with. Yet, for a true Newtype like Quattro Bageena... if had foreseen the nature of Scirocco's gambit, it might seem like a gamble worth the risk.

#Damn him, Quattro knows!# Shagia's thoughts made the exclamation he would never dare voice.

#They won't get far!# Malice surged back from Olba's thoughts.

The enormous, bulbous backpack that so deformed Ashtaron's silhouette began to transform. Great crushing claws descending from either side of the heavy backpack, curling around and slightly forward of Ashtaron's torso. Each claw was nearly the size of the mobile suit itself, and obviously designed to deliver enough pneumatic pressure to utterly shatter the body of an unlucky MS caught in its grasp.

Despite the hideously unbalanced bulk that encumbered its body, Ashtaron's acceleration was tremendous. The mighty rocket-assisted strides Garma's Zaku made toward White Base seemed like a child's steps in comparison. Garma barely lagged behind Quattro in realizing that the massive machine was nearly atop them. The Zaku's metallic body shrieked and rumbled as one claw closed around it, arresting its forward momentum.

"Char!" Garma squealed. The forward cameras showed nothing but the metal that enveloped the machine.

"From above! It's coming!" Quattro cried. He had instructed Garma to flee north, because from that direction he had sensed something approaching... a group of smaller somethings, combining in midair above them.

Olba was insensate to the mid-air combination that could not yet be seen, only felt. Yet he could hear Quattro's cry, and paused before further taunting or outright crushing the hapless Zaku. He directed his machine's sensors skywards, and found himself unprepared for what descended upon him.

It was a Gundam as shining and beautiful as Ashtaron was deformed and ugly. Cast in red and blues and white, reflected light poured off its every surface and even its shield. It was a machine that seemed too bright and perfect to be mere metal, yet it was real and descending upon them with reckless speed.

Olba opened his mouth to vent his fury at the newcomer, but he was pre-empted. "Put him down!" the new pilot impetuously commanded. The new Gundam hit the ground not far from Virsago's right side, with a clap of thunder. Such an impact seemed it must have shattered the pilot's bones.

Yet the new Gundam kept moving, smoothly and perfectly. It drew a beam saber and ignited it, slashing at the upper bulk of Ashtaron's hulking claw. It sheared through the metal effortlessly, yet without so much as searing Garma's Zaku.

It all happened with stunning speed. Olba hardly know what to do, and Virsago was not yet at the scene of battle. Garma was stupefied, Quattro nearly so. Yet his instincts never failed him in a battle.

"Garma, we can break free!" Quattro shouted.

Numbly, Garma's hands went to the controls. Now the Zaku could simply push free of the claw, the severed half collapsing to the ground with a heavy mechanic thud.

Olba dearly wanted to pursue, but knew his new attacker was a far greater threat than the Zaku. Ashtaron whirled on the Gundam, whose response was simply to extend the size of its shield in a bright flash.

"You'll regret trying to play hero!" Olba snarled.

"Bring it," his opponent barked.

"We shouldn't leave him..." Garma mumbled as he pulled his Zaku farther away from the battle. The pilot's voice had the timber of a man even younger than himself.

Quattro grunted. He didn't put much faith in battlefield heroics, and imagined the new pilot's impressed entrance would fizzle the moment the Frosts found a weakness in his machine.

"Do not doubt Shinn Asuka and Force Impulse!" Gato's voice broke in over the Zaku's radio. "Were he from our time, I have no doubt he would be a faithful Zeon soldier."

"Is more back-up on the way?" Quattro asked.

"Yes, Airmaster just launched. We're preparing Turn-A..."

The names meant nothing to Quattro, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one. "Garma, we'll just be in the way, Let's retreat."

Garma did not seem happy about the decision, but understood expediency when it came to a person of his importance. Reluctant, his Zaku turned its back on the conflict about to erupt between Force Impulse, Ashtaron, and most certainly Virsago. He cut off his external sound-gathering sensors, so that the sound of metal wilting in the heat of beam fire wouldn't be too loud in his ears.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

There was really no way to make this clear before starting the battle, but Virsago and Ashtaron are actually in their Chest Break and Hermit Crab upgrade forms. This does mean that Shagia and Olba are from later in the series than Witz, who is not in Airmaster Burst. 


	13. Chapter 13

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Garma and Quattro arrive at White Base, while the Mobile Suit battle raging outside grows ever more dangerous.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible. Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Shin Asuka hated to admit it, even to himself, but he had underestimated the Frost Brothers. While Force Impulse easily had superior offense when compared to both Ashtaron and Virsago, he wasn't prepared for the pilots' ability to work so eerily in tandem. Shin found himself quickly forced back on the defensive, forced to guess which of the Frosts' weapons could damage his Phase Shift armor and which couldn't.

Ashtaron had shifted back into its faster, if not truly agile, Mobile Armor mode. Olba was tormenting Impulse with hit and run assaults that took advantage of the unit's remaining claw, and its integrated beam cannon. At the same time, Shagia was expertly using Virsago to keep Impulse pinned down on the ground, unable to exploit its superior maneuverability. Shin imagined a Natural pilot would've long since been overwhelmed by them.

"Not so brave when you aren't picking on my poor little brother, are you, boy?" Shagia asked. He'd quickly realized that the Impulse's pilot showed extra caution when defending against beam attacks, while attacks from Virsago's extension claws had failed to even inflict scratches. Shagia was convinced a beam would do devastating damage to his opponent's gleaming armor, and took full advantage of the wide range of fire his claw-mounted beam cannons allowed.

Impulse had only its beam rifle to counter with, and Shin found himself wishing he'd used the Sword Silhouette instead. He offered Shagia no voiced reply, instead training his rifle's sights on Virsago's head before firing. He managed to obliterate fully half of Virsago's devilish face, Shagia grunting with anger, before Ashtaron soared down behind him and began strafing with its high-caliber beam shots.

"Damn you!" Shin cursed aloud. He had to drop his rifle and begin huddling behind his shield, dodging and weaving to avoid shots that could probably blow his machine in half if they connected. This always happened when he got close to doing more than superficial damage to Virsago, and he had yet to work out a way to break the pattern without leaving himself open to a shot in the back from one of the two units.

"I believe you'll see hell before either of us..." Shagia couldn't help but sneer. He'd been quietly drawing closer to Impulse during the skirmishing, the other pilot not trying to fall away from him. Now he was at the perfect range for the megasonic cannon to have its greatest effectiveness. Virsago's chest plates swiveled open, segments of the backpack shifting into place like a spider's legs. The firing nodes within the machine's chest glowed a malevolent red-orange.

The sonic blast was impossible to dodge. Shin's world exploded into agony. His Mobile Suit went stiff as he screamed, joints locking. Impulse's systems and joints crackled freely with energy overload; the Phase Shift armor flickered between shining color and a dull, vulnerable grey.

Above, Olba aligned Ashtaron so the remaining claw-cannon could spear Impulse's cockpit from behind with a final deadly shot. "Hell... yes, sink into hell!" He cackled.

Suddenly Olba felt his cockpit rattle, his machine's altitude suddenly shaking. A series of small explosions were peppering his upper-right flank. Another jet-like Mobile Armor roared overhead, whirling to bring its wing-mounted buster rifles to bear at him. Ashtaron wouldn't be claiming the life of Impulse's pilot today, not when Gundam Airmaster lived up to its name. Olba screeched in anger and pulled away, trying to both stabilize Ashtaron and get out of Airmaster's firing line.

"Stinking Vulture!" Shagia cursed. Virsago also left off tormenting Impulse for a time, taking aim at the Mobile Armor that harried his brother.

Witz was unperturbed; he knew more back-up was on the way. "Still better than you, asshole." He tried not to smile as he saw their planned flanking attack go off perfectly.

While Virsago was still lining up its shots, Shagia suddenly found himself and his machine blindsided by a truly unorthodox attack from the right. The rocket-powered ball of a morning star smashed into the side of Virsago's torso, rattling his cockpit and knocking the machine off balance. If it had been an explosive, it probably would have killed him right there.

The chain that connected the morning-star to its wielder, Turn-A's slim and bizarre form, disintegrated in mid-air from the sheer force. The unearthly machine touched down lightly in front of Impulse, its position defensive. "That's enough!" Loran said, more fire in his voice than even his allies would have thought possible.

Shin could not for a moment believe he was alive, or who had come to his rescue. Blood streamed from his nose and, he thought, at least one ear. His vision was slowly regaining focus. Impulse's sensors screamed at him; whatever the megasonic cannon did to the Phase Shift armor, it had drained the battery nearly to empty, and White Base's energy field was replenishing it only slowly. If White Base hadn't happened to be outfitted with something like the Minerva's deuterion beam system...

"Kid, are you okay?" Lowe's voice came through his cockpit radio. His Astray Red Frame was pulling up behind Impulse, beam rifle in one hand and a beam saber in the other.

Shin felt the vibrations as Airmaster, now in Mobile Suit form, touched down to the ground on his left. Virsago and Ashtaron were falling back, leaving striking range rapidly. He was content to let them go for now. "... yeah," he said. "Thanks. Everyone... thanks." The gratitude in Shin's voice was genuine.

"Do you need to go back to the ship?" Loran asked.

Impulse's battery gauge was reading 90 seconds, and slowly rising. Blood was soaking into the padding of his helmet. "No, I'm okay," Shin said.

Lowe laughed. "I knew you coordinators were tough, but you're something else!"

"Just as well. We've got more company coming," Witz broke in, all business. He patched the visuals from his cockpit to the others, a view of two more Mobile Suits streaking out from the Dogos Gear's launch ramps. Their armor, even from a distance, had the distinctly reflective quality of Impulse's.

"Earth Alliance..." Shin breathed. As the machines grew wider, panic began to pang his heart. Both machines were black, and he could recognize them both. One he knew only from documentary footage he saw in Academy, as black and malformed as the EA itself. But the other... the other he had fought before, and he knew the pilot with a painful certainty. He couldn't fight her. No, he had to save her. "Raider, Gaia..."

"Friends of yours?" Witz asked, as he swung Airmaster's his buster rifles up into position. They'd do the job against Phase Shift armor just fine.

"Yes... no! I mean..." Shin tried to gather his wits. "The one on the left is Raider, the pilot's a psychopath, he needs to go down. The one on the right is... that's Gaia, the pilot doesn't know what she's doing..."

"So we have to rescue her!" Loran said. He sounded pleased by the prospect.

Witz didn't sound happy. "So she's going to be shooting at me, and I can't shoot back? No thanks. Look, you guys do whatever and I'll take that Raider asshole. I've got beams, and his suit looks like a total piece of shit anyway."

"We'll have to mop up the Frosts, too," Lowe said. "You'll have to bail your girlfriend out fast, or at least help us hold out until Amuro finally gets his ass out here."

Shin wasn't inclined to disagree with a plan of action that promised a way for him to help Stellar. "The pilot's enhanced, it won't be like fighting another Natural," he said, a warning clearly meant for Witz.

Witz didn't sound especially impressed. "Fight's a fight, but thanks for the warning. They're regrouping, so whatever we're doing it's gonna have to be now."

Impulse rose to its feet. Shin steadied the machine's grip on its beam rifle and picked the machine's fallen shield back up again. Fighting with a squad at his back, even a squad of clueless Naturals in hodge-podge machines, felt good again. "Alright. Let's do this."

-X-X-X-

The hangar bay of White Base was a scene of both joy and frustration. For Amuro's part, he was not yet on the field due to a baffling and infuriating failure of the Beyonder's accommodations. When equipped with its Fin Funnel rack, nu Gundam was actually so large it couldn't fit down White Base's outdated deployment ramps.

The first attempt to sortie had to be scrapped when Amuro realized the attempt would result in damage, and then further delays were caused by Garma's Zaku coming aboard. While Garma and Quattro disembarked, to be received by the Zeon contingent waiting below, Amuro was arguing back and forth with Christina and Edward about how to make nu Gundam launchable. Eventually it was decided that they'd have to remove the Fin Funnel rack, manually if necessary. Then nu Gundam might fit if the machine hunched and made a point of keeping its arms in. Christina worried that such an awkward launch position would put nu in danger of crashing once airborne, but Amuro was convinced he could handle it. Largely, he was furious that he was trapped on the ship while civilians were on the field doing most of the fighting.

The difficulty of removing the Fin Funnel rack manually is that White Base didn't really have any overhead cranes or other machines well-suited to the task. They were, at the moment, trying to compromise with a pair of remotely operated auto-arms that weren't really designed to handle such weights. Domon was attempting to help, but Amuro worried the sheer weight of the funnels would crush him outright. Ed was handling the arms as best he could, but he was a novice at the work, and progress was slow and awkward.

For the most part, the Zeon contingent was thoroughly distracted from nu Gundam's distress by Garma's miraculously safe arrival.

"Commander Garma! Are you all right?" Johnny asked.

Although his nerves were obviously rattled by the experience, Garma wasn't hurt. He tried to put on a brave and dignified face. "I'll be fine, Crimson Lightning, thanks to the efforts of your allies."

Johnny smiled. He, too, was impressed with how their irregulars were performing on the field.

"Lord Garma... it is an extraordinary honor to meet you," Gato said.

"The honor is mine, Lieutenant." Garma's response was polite. "Thank you for your efforts... but gentlemen, is it all right for us to stand here talking while there's fighting going on?"

"We'd either have to move our machines to the other hangar bay or force Amuro to wait longer." Quattro finally spoke up, glancing away from the operations with nu Gundam. "For now, it's better we stay out of the way."

"The White Devil..." Garma gritted his teeth. "Are you sure you should be setting him loose on a battlefield, Commander Ridden? Scirocco is a viper, and so are his allies, but there are blameless children aboard the Dogos Gear, as well. They may be forced to fight, and they deserve better than to be mowed down by that heartless monster."

"Children?" Johnny asked. This was a surprise, but he shouldn't be surprised Scirocco had concealed strength from them.

"Yes! They're from... they call it Cosmic Era, I believe." Words began tumbling out of Garma as he tried to describe the situation. "Two of them seem to be... damaged, somehow. They were created to fight, but won't take action on their own. Miss Flay is a gentle young woman who's practically a hostage there, and she too was tricked into trusting the Frost Brothers. I'm sure they would happily join us rather than fight for Scirocco."

"Lord Garma..." Gato's voice was pained. "We will do what we can, of course, but if they can't be persuaded, or if Scirocco drives them at us... our men would have no choice but to defend themselves."

Before Garma could express more frustration, Quattro stepped in to calm him. "These aren't bloodthirsty people, Garma. I'm sure they'll do what they can to prevent needless loss of life."

"But the White Devil...!" Garma exclaimed.

Quattro smiled. "I can't think of anyone less likely to mow down children lost on a battlefield and trapped in Mobile Suits."

"Yes, Captain Ray did mention you two were acquainted, Lieutenant Azanble," Johhny said. His tone was arch, and Quattro flashed a hard glance at him from beneath his shades. It held for a moment, the tension making Gato and Garma extremely uncomfortable.

Slowly, Quattro removed his glasses. The face beneath was perhaps even more flawlessly handsome and picturesque than Johnny's. "... so Amuro told you about that, did he. Well, I suppose Quattro Bageena's outlived his usefulness here..."

"... I knew it was you!" Garma exclaimed. He seemed rather proud of himself for never really being swayed to believe otherwise. "Char, you must take the field, you can hold that Federation beast in check."

Johnny spoke, a bit more quietly and with more meaning. "... if nothing else, the prospect of facing both the White Devil and Red Comet might draw Scirocco from his ship. If he could be persuaded to take the field..."

Gato's eyes lit up. "... if he died, it would behead his entire faction at a single stroke! Then we could overwhelm the others, and the children will surrender to us, as Lord Garma said. Commander Ridden, if that is our goal, then let the Nightmare of Solomon join them as well, and answer Scirocco's insult to Lord Garma's honor!"

"We can't afford to empty the ship entirely, but..." Johnny considered this, carefully. "One more ace on the field couldn't hurt our chances of victory."

Quattro... well, Char now, he supposed, arched an eyebrow at the scheme that was abruptly forming. "It's a fine idea, gentlemen, but what am I going to pilot? I can hardly make a difference in Garma's Zaku."

Gato suddenly glanced toward Johnny. "What of Lieutenant Mackenzie's Mobile Suit? She's declared her intent to hold the bridge through the battle." Johnny rubbed his chin. It wasn't a bad idea, provided Christina could be convinced to hand a Federation prototype super-weapon over to the infamous Red Comet. That could be a tall order, even given the circumstances. "... I'll call the bridge and speak to her."

"Exactly what are you proposing I sortie in... Lieutenant Gato, isn't it?" Char asked.

Gato was a little too star-struck to be offended by Char's momentary lapse. "It's a Gundam, sir, an improved version of the original White Devil. Not a... modern Mobile Suit, to your way of thinking, but..."

"... but definitely something I can work with." Char grinned, and felt much of the old Aznable persona flooding back to him. He felt the cockiness, the sense of sureness... it would be useful in helping him get this promising group of irregulars under control and out of the Beyonder's grip.

"A fantastic suggestion, Lieutenant Gato!" Garma said. "Upon my return I shall make sure you are commended to Brother Dozle."

Gato accepted the praise with a humble bow and nod of his head, the perfect Zeon response. Char felt satisfied that he could leave Garma to him for a time, and they could congratulate each other for upholding their ridiculous ideals so well. Instead, Char turned his attention toward nu Gundam.

With a tremendous metallic crash and a thud, and a good deal of shouting from nu's open cockpit, the Fin Funnel rack finally came off of nu's back. It seemed time to line the massive machine up for another try at launching. Char watched the enormous machine's cockpit close up. It moved to the launch catapult, feet just barely fitting into the stirrups. With its arms held in tightly and its back hunched, it seemed it would just barely fit. The awkward ejection would probably kill a pilot less sure with an in-air machine than Amuro Ray, but Char felt certain he would take the field and begin rampaging over it as he usually could. Idly, he wondered where Amuro had gotten such a machine to begin with, what kind of technology made it possible. It was magnificent, in a way.

If only Char could get the kind of influence over this Amuro he'd had before in the AEUG... it might be possible not just to survive the Beyonder's ridiculous war, but to stand as its primary victor. And then, with the kind of power the Beyonder's prize would leave at his disposal... well, then anything would be possible.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

The modified Deuterion Beam System that the Beyonder mounted on White Base projects a constant and passive cloud that slowly regenerates Impulse's energy. It would be possible for Impulse to run its power down more quickly than the field regenerates it in a long battle, but in the short term it shouldn't be able to run out of power. The modified system is to compensate for White Base not really having an available hardpoint to mount a single-shot Deuterion Beam Projector like the Minerva's.


	14. Chapter 14

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Scirocco forms deadly plans, while the combatants between the two ships begin to battle in earnest. Shin faces Stellar on the battlefield, hoping to make her understand.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible. Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Paptimus Scirocco watched the battle unfolding in the no man's land between the Dogos Gear and White Base upon a portable monitor while he busied himself doing final tune-ups on the Messala at the main hangar. His expression was cold and tight. He was finding himself singularly unimpressed with the quality of his own troops.

Oh, Stellar and the augmented boy – Scirocco really couldn't recall his name at all – were doing well enough. They fought without any true subtlety, but Cosmic Era technology and their own intense fury helped them hold their own against opponents who were clearly more controlled and seasoned. No, the bitterest disappointment came from the Frost Brothers, who were clearly no use in a battle if they couldn't use two-on-one tactics or simple machine superiority to achieve victory. When faced with overwhelming or even equal odds, their tactics turned cowardly. Perhaps being from a ruined world, probably devoid of any spectacularly talented pilots, was to blame.

It's not that the Dogos Gear side was losing. Right now, the battle was proceeding more or less equally, momentum passing from one side to the other. It's that his side wasn't winning or holding momentum even though the lion's share of their combatants were on the field, and facing no one particularly noteworthy from the other side. What would happen when Amuro Ray or one of the Zeon aces finally appeared? A collapse into chaos and a complete rout, that's what.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, and descended from the scaffolding where he worked. Michelo was also lounging in the hangar, against Neros Gundam's foot. A monitor displaying the same battle data Scirocco watched intently played alongside him, but Michelo appeared to be paying it no particular mind.

"Miserable, isn't it?" Scirocco asked as he approached the other man.

Michelo glanced up, clearly not getting Scirocco's drift. "Eh?"

"The battle. Our forces are performing pathetically," Scirocco stated.

Michelo gave it an offhand glance and shrugged. "It's a couple kids and a couple finocchio. What did you expect?"

"Competence." Scirocco didn't disguise the bitterness in his voice. "Apparently that was too much."

"You shoulda just had the girlie at the bridge open fire with your big cannons. Wipe out everybody fighting, wipe out the other ship. Then we win by default, eh?" Michelo grinned nastily at the thought.

Scirocco tapped his chin thoughtfully. It was a tempting thought, if impractical. "Beams aren't quite thorough enough to ensure that everyone we wanted dead would actually die. If someone we missed escaped and went into hiding, we'd be trapped here for years..." Michelo's disappointment was obvious. He grunted in dissatisfaction.

Scirocco continued on, to suggest the plan he'd been decided on before the conversation even began. "No, if we want complete surrender, we need to sortie and clean this mess up ourselves."

"Nah," Michelo said. He took a swig from the bottle of wine he was nursing.

"... We're on the verge of taking a beating." Scirocco usually treated Michelo lightly, but this was beyond the pale. What good was he if he didn't fight when it was time?

"That fight out there is soldier crap." Michelo sounded bored. "Don't bug me about it unless the King of Hearts shows up."

"Will you at least try to defend the ship if a boarding party breaks through?" Scirocco asked.

Michelo's eyes flicked up to glance at him, suddenly half-lidded and snake-like. His smile became small and truly dangerous. "You don't worry about that, buddy. Nobody gets to be a Gundam Fighter without knowing how to break plenty of heads."

Scirocco frowned. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Michelo was a thug in an almost excessively pure sense of the word: fights that didn't leave blood on fists (or feet) were of no interest. "Very well, then. I'll see what I can accomplish myself with the Messala."

With that, he turned on his heels for his Mobile Suit, trying to disguise his frustration. Michelo's plan was actually sound, but would require the Frosts' promised Satellite Cannon to ensure total destruction of the White Base. Despite the Frosts' display of incompetence, he would be forced to give it a try now. The longer the battle went on, the worse it was for his chances of getting a quick surrender.

Perhaps losing Michelo wasn't so bad. He'd have the entire battlefield to himself, and could put the Messala through its combat paces in gravity better than he ever had before. He wasn't worried about the odds being against him or any personal danger; the pilots out there might push back his lackeys, but they were obviously no match for him. Once the Messala was on the field, he'd turn the embarrassing skirmish into a bloodbath.

-X-X-X-

No one directly involved in the battle between the forces from the two silent ships would have thought they were fighting lazily, except for maybe the Frosts. While they didn't want to be too obvious about it, they were simply trying to bide their time until Scirocco sortied and they could get on with their own schemes. Likewise, the White Base attackers weren't putting up the fiercest offense they might have; Loran and Lowe simply didn't take killing shots, and everyone was mindful of Shin's request to try and save Gaia and her supposedly innocent pilot.

Still, the White Base contingent couldn't help but be pleased by how well things were going. Much to Shin's surprise, Witz proved a more than even match for Raider and its Boosted Man pilot. Whatever advantages the performance drugs and sheer technology inherent in Raider should have provided over a Natural in a suit using standard armor, Witz's instincts and hard-earned battle experience more than made up for. He was greatly helped by Airmaster's maneuverability in MA mode, which far exceeded Raider's targeting ability in MS or MA mode.

Loran had taken on the duty of holding back the Frost Brothers. Initially Lowe had wanted to help him, but this proved completely unnecessary. Turn-A's performance ability, much like Loran's strength as a pilot, far exceeded what anyone might have expected. Turn-A moved lightly and confidently under Loran's hand, its movements so natural that there was a certain human grace to them. He could easily evade any attack from Virsago, and actually used bursts from a shockingly massive beam cannon mounted in Turn-A's chest cavity to force Ashtaron down to the ground. The Frosts were beginning to worry they'd have to abandon their plan and fight Turn-A tooth and nail if they wanted to keep the mustachioed machine from outright disabling them.

Instead, Lowe found himself teaming up with Shin to handle the delicate task of convincing Gaia's pilot to stop fighting them. She apparently didn't realize she wanted to not fight as much as Shin claimed she really did, which made the whole operation excessively dangerous. They would hover around her, shouting and pleading, and she would keep firing at them, and it had gone on like that for a few moments.

"Stellar, please!" Shin tried again. "Can't you remember?"

"Stellar doesn't know you! Stellar will make you be QUIET!" A barrage of fire erupted from her beam rifle again. Force Impulse dodged it handily, although Lowe was beginning to think Shin might be reaching his limit. His movements were getting wobblier, and a sonic attack like Virsago's would eventually wear down anyone who wouldn't rest, even a coordinator.

"Shin, this isn't working. I've got an idea, can we try it?" Lowe asked over comms.

Shin was indeed sweating, and there were blood-stained streaks on his helmet glass. "What is it?"

"Could we just disable her and get her back to the ship? Maybe she'll recognize you if she gets a look."

Shin was immediately suspicious. "Disable how?"

"Just a little bit of electroshock at low voltage. Nothing permanent – come on, am I bloodthirsty guy to you?" Lowe asked.

Shin had to admit that people in Gundams didn't really come less bloodthirsty than Lowe Gear. "How close do you need to be to do it?"

"Right on top of her – uh, pardon the expression. The outlet's in Red Frame's palm. Can you cover me?" Lowe asked.

"That's dangerous for a Natural, and your machine doesn't have Phase Shift..." Shin began.

"It's dangerous if she keeps shooting at me, too!" Red Frame was quite nearly grazed by one of Gaia's beams as Lowe spoke, perhaps emphasizing his point.

Shin grumbled, but with Stellar not even hesitating at his voice, it seemed they had no choice. "Fine. Be careful if you get close on the ground, Gaia's a variable geometry unit. It can turn into a BuCUE."

Lowe's eyes lit up. "Really?? That's... oh, that's perfect, I wish we'd done this to begin with!"

"... huh?"

Lowe didn't hesitate to explain what he was thinking. He charged in at Gaia directly, thrusters flaring, beam sword held high. If Stellar didn't parry his charge, it would be harmless, but he hoped she would. He also hoped he was coming far enough in toward her off-hand that she didn't just whirl on him and fire point blank.

Fortunately, Stellar was nothing if not predictable. At the prospect of melee combat she promptly forgot her ranged weapon and drew one of her suit's own beam sabers. She parried Lowe's blow so easy and both he and Hachi felt a little embarrassed, and let Red Frame be pushed back by Gaia's counter-attack. "Stellar will chop you up!" she screamed.

Red Frame kept parrying Gaia's incoming slashes and thrusts with its own beam saber, but looked increasingly awkward – almost comical – as it backpedaled. Using the thrusters would've made for more graceful dodging, but Lowe wanted to bait her into transforming, and keeping feet on the ground should do that. In fact...

"Hachi, can Red Frame take a pratfall?" Lowe asked his on-board computer.

Hachi's screen flashed. "... what?"

"You know, make it look like we're finished, but we're not really," Lowe explained.

"That's insane," Hachi flashed. "So, no problem."

"You're the best," Lowe grinned.

So at Stellar's next blow, Red Frame appeared to slip and lose its footing, crashing down on its own pelvic chassis. It was actually quite a difficult maneuver to pull off without damaging the leg joints, which were probably the most delicate part of a Gundam due to the load they had to bear. Lowe added some flourishes of his own, making Red Frame brace itself against the ground with its rifle-wielding hand, and raise its saber shakily in front of itself for defense.

The charade was good enough to make Shin panic. "Lowe!" he shouted, beginning to dive in.

Hachi patched some text over to Shin's monitors to try and let him in on the gambit. "Don't worry. Lowe's just being himself."

Shin sputtered in disbelief.

Stellar, meanwhile, was entirely taken in by Red Frame's ploy. Gaia abruptly transformed into its BuCUE-like form, a double-bladed beam saber wedged into its mouth. It pounced toward Red Frame, bringing the blade's point sharply down, intending to run the cockpit through and finish the machine off. Lowe and Hachi were ready. Red Frame abruptly rolled out of the way, letting Gaia's quadruped form come down on empty earth. "What?" Stellar exclaimed. "Where..."

"Right behind you!" Lowe exclaimed gleefully as he rushed Gaia from its right rear flank. His beam saber came down with a flick of Red Frame's wrist, shearing through Gaia's BuCUE head. Its double-bladed beam saber extinguished, the head rolling almost comically on the ground. Shin had finally adjusted to Lowe's unorthodox (and utterly undignified) fighting style. Impulse touched down to the ground and began rushing toward Gaia to help subdue it.

Stellar screamed in fury, as if she had been wounded herself. "Liar! Liar!" Despite the loss of vital forward camera data, she tried to wheel around and line up a shot from her remaining beam gun. "Stellar will destroy you!"

Gaia was moving awkwardly enough that Lowe decided to risk grabbing it around the neck, Red Frame's body low to the ground and hopefully beneath her cannon's trajectory. "Stop, please stop..." Lowe said, voice suddenly more serious and strained. "We're not going to hurt you, we're trying to help..." He took the reprieve as his chance to get rid of his beam saber and prime Red Frame's palm socket for an electric discharge that would stun, but not kill, someone whose biology he could only assume was close to a coordinator's.

Gaia strained against Red Frame like an animal fighting its own butcher, servo grinding against servo. "You won't take Stellar... Stellar won't lose!"

"Stellar, please!" Shin shouted. Impulse approached Gaia from behind, shearing its remaining cannon off to make sure Red Frame wasn't blasted. "We're not going to hurt you, we're not going to kill you, you're not going to die! I'm going to protect you!"

Gaia went still, and then Stellar emitted a new and unearthly noise. It was a keening wail, half grief and half insane terror. She sounded almost like a panicking child, voice coming through sobs. "Die? ... Stellar doesn't want to die! Stellar doesn't want to die!" She almost sounded like she was about to have a seizure, and her Mobile Suit stood inert, no hand guiding its actions.

Shin couldn't begin to understand what was happening to Stellar, but the sound of her screams tore his heart in half. "Stellar... Lowe, please!"

"On it!" Lowe shouted. Red Frame's palm-mounted electrical outlet sparked for a moment, before he slammed it into Gaia's side. Current surged and crackled through the machine, making its Phase Shift armor coloration flicker. Stellar's screams reached a feverish pitch before suddenly falling into silence.

As Stellar's body crumpled against her cockpit seat, something in her mind seemed to come loose. If Flay had been conditioning her mind the way her EA masters had, then not even the electricity would've been enough to break that wall of forgetfulness. But Flay didn't even know the pods could do that, and had no reason to think she should. It was like a brief, shining ray of light suddenly shot through Stellar's mind. Suppressed memories resurfaced, of a cave and a warm fire and a kind boy with shy eyes that shone like rubies.

As she sank into unconsciousness, Stellar smiled to herself. Suddenly, she could understand.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...


	15. Chapter 15

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: At long last, Scirocco takes the field and the battle descends into utter chaos.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

With Gaia disabled, Shin and Lowe now had to face the difficult task of getting her off the battlefield without setting themselves up as targets for Raider or the Frosts. Although Gaia's body was quite heavy, the conversion into BuCUE mode had compacted it somewhat, and high spec Cosmic Era machines usually had enough power at their disposal to move the weight of another MS if necessary. It was simply a matter of who would take her back toward the ship.

"You should do it," Shin said. His head had started throbbing. He hoped it wasn't affecting his piloting too much. "Fighting's my job."

Shin had, in fact, been affected enough that Lowe could see a major difference. He imagined a ferocious ace might take advantage of Shin's wobbling to make mincemeat out of the poor kid. Of course, Lowe also knew Shin well enough to realize that he wouldn't go back to the ship for his own sake. "I dunno. Red Frame's more of a turtle in this gravity than Impulse. If someone ended up dogging us, carrying Gaia and fighting back... not sure I could handle it. I mean, one or the other's fine..."

Pretending weakness had the desired effect on Shin. He was more of a trusting personality than he let on. "Alright... be careful out here."

Lowe grinned. "Don't have to tell me twice. Here, get going, I'll cover you until you're farther out."

Red Frame picked up the beam rifle it had dropped a bit earlier in the fight and hoisted it, turning to face toward the Dogos Gear and the other combatants. Lowe took a careful look at how the other fights were going, while Impulse carefully hoisted up Gaia's inert frame and fired the Force Silhouette's thrusters. Shin was able to move away at a rapid clip, which gave him a bit more confidence in the rightness of his decision.

As far as Lowe could tell, barring the sudden entrance of another fighter, it looked like the White Base team held the advantage. Once Amuro arrived (much longer and he'd radio to see what was wrong), it seemed like starting to mop up the fighters on the field would be possible.

Raider was hopelessly mismatched against Airmaster, which was far more agile in MA form and more cleverly piloted in MS form. At the moment, Raider had resorted to trying to engage Airmaster at melee range, swinging a tremendous morning star mounted on a retracting cord. Airmaster didn't have much in the way of melee-specific weaponry, but Witz didn't seem to feel guilty about firing his buster rifles at an opponent in point-blank range. Raider frankly seemed to be in more danger than Airmaster, all things considered.

The Frosts had seemingly grown their spines back, and were giving Loran a bit more of a hard time. It seemed Red Frame would be able to do the most good by assisting there. Virsago's pilot seemed to have decided that Turn-A's light weight might mean thin armor plating, and so was trying catch Turn-A with its extension claws. Ashtaron still did little, but the way it scuttled back and forth behind the more sinister-looking machine suggested it meant to try and finish Turn-A off with its remaining claw once Virsago had immobilized it. At the moment, Turn-A was too agile and too cleverly piloted for the gambit to work.

-X-X-X-

The Frosts' renewed offense was little more than a feint. In fact, they were both starting to panic. They were utterly unprepared for Stellar's outright loss to the enemy or the offensive power of the machines they were facing. Scirocco hadn't taken the field yet. Things had gotten so bad for the Dogos Gear party that it seemed like he might not be willing to do so until they were all dead.

#Should we call for help, brother? Scirocco is vain, he'd launch if we begged, wouldn't he?# Olba seemed ready to grasp at anything.

#Too suspicious...# Shagia replied, as he failed at another attempt to tear Turn-A's shield from the insufferable machine's hands.

#Then what are we to do?#

Shagia was pouring through options as rapidly as he could. #If you could spring upon the other machine, Raider's opponent, before the third joins the fray... then we could use Raider as a living shield, and attack with impunity from behind him-#

The soft buzz of an incoming communication interrupted Shagia's train of thought. #- this may be him. Olba, hold the enemy at bay.#

Ashtaron lumbered forward to do what it could, laying down a sweep of cover fire with its remaining claw-mounted beam cannon and its two machine cannons. The sudden offense was smooth enough that it took Loran quite by surprise. Turn-A nearly lost its shield while trying to escape.

As Shagia hoped, it was indeed Scirocco. He was clearly sitting in his Messala's cockpit, not bothering with a Normal Suit. His manner was brisk. "I'm coming to relieve you. Give me one hundred seconds on the ground, then activate the Satellite Cannon. Your target is White Base."

"We'll need to fall back somewhat to ensure the enemy doesn't disrupt the combination-"

Scirocco was clearly in no mood to listen to him, which was exactly what Shagia wanted. "Do what you must. I'll clear the way for you." With that, Scirocco closed the transmission.

#The time has come.# Shagia's thoughts were exultant.

-X-X-X-

"Lowe, we've got some more company on the way."

Lowe glanced over at Hachi's flashing screen and cursed to himself. He quickly opened a channel to White Base. "Christina, what's the hold up? The bad guys just crapped another MS on us, we could use some help."

"I'm sorry!" Christina responded. She looked a little harried, and Lowe realized there had been trouble on the ship. "We had problems with Captain Ray's MS. I'm about to send him down the catapult, and then two more."

"No problem. We'll hold out!"

Christina smiled. "Thanks, Lowe. I'm sorry. White Base out." She terminated the communication line, no doubt so she could get back to working on the launch.

Lowe upped Astray's external data feeds to highest magnification. The machine bearing down on them was a Mobile Armor, a lumpy purple thing that seemed to be little more than a flat, oblong body with enormous thrusters attached. It was ridiculously fast, maybe faster than Airmaster, and hardpoints for weapons were all over the body. There were a few other mechanisms whose purpose was less obvious, but might indicate an ability to transform into MS mode.

The MA was bearing down on Loran and the Frosts, probably looking for an easy target. Lowe would need to get over there to even the odds fast. "Shin, a new guy just showed up. I need to bail out Loran, I'm afraid you're on your own from here."

Shin managed to force a little petulance into his voice when he answered, but Lowe could tell that the news had rattled him. "You're still back there? Get going already, I'm fine."

"I can tell!" Lowe laughed. "Red Frame out." After he closed the signal, he tried to get his game face on. He had a feeling the fight coming up was going to be serious. "Come on, Hachi, let's go kick some ass."

"You don't have any weapons mounted in Red Frame's feet, Lowe."

"... are you messing with me, Hachi?"

"Possibly."

-X-X-X-

Turn-A was attempting to close on Ashtaron when a spray of beam fire forced the white MS back and into the air. Turn-A's sensors had screamed warning of the incoming unit just seconds before, though Loran still found Turn-A's data displays a little hard to interpret. "Who's that?" he asked, not really expecting any reply.

The purple MA screeching toward him transformed in mid-air. Its Mobile Suit form was spiky and sinister, and a bit bigger than Turn-A. A single shifting eye swiveled in its oblong, malformed face. It didn't even have a neck, the "head" instead sunk low into the torso. "I gave you a chance to surrender. Remember that."

Loran instantly recognized the pilot's voice; he had carefully listened to audio of the argument between the two ships. Scirocco! "You never had any right to attack us!" Loran shouted back at him. He could see the Frosts beginning to draw back. It would be just like them to try and attack him from behind. He hoped he received some back-up soon.

Now in MS form, the Messala thundered to the ground. The armor on one shoulder slid open, and a volley of nine missiles screamed into the air. They spread out slightly as they moved toward Turn-A in formation, making airborne dodging a complete waste of time. Turn-A instead dived to the ground, landing with improbable grace. Loran swung Turn-A's beam rifle up and opened fire, the shots rapid and unaimed. All he hoped to do was shut down Messala's offense for awhile and give him a breather.

These tactics had worked well against the Frosts, but Scirocco did not even seem slightly troubled by the spray of fire in his direction. He had somehow moved to one side before Loran even fired the shots, and was quickly closing on him. It seemed the Messala didn't have to walk at all, but instead slid over the ground with clouds of dust rising at its feet.

The Frosts were loathe to get involved when all they really wanted to do now was implement their plan. Fortunately, Red Frame was already blundering toward them, squeezing wide warning shots off of its beam rifle. Ashtaron and Virsago took the excuse to back away from the battle between Turn-A and the Messala, happy to give Scirocco his one hundred seconds.

Messala's bizarre sliding gait and enormous thrusters let it cover ground far more quickly than any opponent Loran had yet faced. Its enormous beam cannons, squatting over either shoulder, continued to pepper the air overhead with enough beam fire that leaving the ground wasn't an option. Loran screwed up his courage and decided to dive forward at the opponent, firing at the Messala's recessed head. Putting its eye out would surely slow it down.

Somehow, the Messala was always able to duck and weave such that every shot just barely missed, or merely grazed. The gauntlet that covered one arm lifted slightly, and a hatch in the middle slid open. Loran never saw the projectile that had apparently flown out, but moments later his beam rifle suddenly exploded. The grenade's blast threw Turn-A to the ground, where it rolled until Loran was able to bring it up into a kneeling position. Somehow he had managed to keep a grip on his shield, but the beam rifle was lying in smoking pieces.

A lesser opponent might have been cowed, but Loran was fearless. His faith in himself and his friends was too absolute. Instead, he shook free one of Turn-A's beam sabers and brought his MS back to its feet, hoisting the shield into a more protective position. The Messala seemed enormous now that he was closer to it, much taller and wider than Turn-A. Still, Loran would hack it to pieces if that's what it took to defeat it.

Scirocco was a little bored with the fight – the suit was elegant, the pilot an amateur – when Turn-A's unconventional beam saber suddenly made things interesting again. The beam that projected wasn't the usual conical burst of magnetically contained plasma, but instead something that was thin and absolutely flat. Unless the blade was held just so, Scirocco couldn't even see it as more than slim line of radiance.

Of course, whoever piloted Turn-A did so with movements so broad that even an Oldtype idiot could have read his intentions. Scirocco knew he would never doubt the blade's position if he concentrated even a little. It was still enough to convince him that he should incapacitate rather than destroy Turn-A, so he could study it in more detail later.

So Scirocco took Turn-A's invitation to join in pure hand-to-hand combat, hefting up one of the forearm guards and popping one of its beam sabers free. Instead of surging toward Turn-A, he let the other machine come to him. Sabers met in a blazing clash of energy, the Messala's blade almost twice as long as Turn-A's. Scirocco marveled as the other machine's slim blade still put out more than enough energy to force his back in a clash. He indulged a bit of swordplay with him, testing feints and parries, letting Turn-A's pilot grow bolder. The boy – yes, it was definitely a boy – was actually somewhat good when it came to close fighting, letting his shield leave no easily exploitable gaps.

The thinness of Turn-A's blade let Loran execute an unconventional spiraling maneuver, rapidly rolling his slim beam saber from one side to the other of Scirocco's chunkier weapon. Loran could then skim it downwards, with such that speed that Scirocco would either have to give up the Messala's hand or pull his entire arm back. When Scirocco took that defensive maneuver, Loran was able to level his saber's point at the very heart of the Messala's torso, just below the recessed head.

"An excellent effort!" Scirocco's praise dripped mockery.

Loran was unmoved. "No more! I don't want to hurt you, but if you force me, I will strike!"

Scirocco knew that while Loran made his little speech, he would most likely only watch the right arm that held his beam saber. The left arm was already moving forward, forearm guard rising to eject the Messala's second saber into his left arm. His intent was to cripple the Turn-A by rapidly igniting and shearing through part of the pelvic chassis, severing a leg and leaving it unable to move in a gravitational environment. Had he known of the unorthodox location of Turn-A's cockpit, he might have chosen a different blow. If Loran had understood more of Turn-A's true potential, he might not have found himself in the situation at all.

Instead, Scirocco's second beam saber tore through the Core Fighter that docked in the hollow between Turn-A's legs. Loran had no time to scream, and probably felt no pain or even realized what was happening. Contact with the plasma field certainly immolated his body and most of the cockpit in a hellish instant. Scirocco blinked as his blade freed itself, sliding upwards out of Turn-A's hip. The white machine's severed leg crashed to the ground as its eyes went dead and its beam saber extinguished itself. The rest of Turn-A's body crumpled lifelessly at the Messala's feet.

Scirocco felt his enemy's brief and confused death. "A cockpit strike? ... in the pelvic chassis?" He laughed at the sheer absurdity of it. He'd scored a kill already?

-X-X-X-

"Seventy-five seconds," Shagia breathed. He couldn't help but admire Scirocco's efficiency. Ashtaron and Virsago probably never would've overcome the Turn-A at all.

At the dread explosion, a sudden burst of static crackled over the comms of the allied units on the field. Witz knew what that meant, and it happened so abruptly that he finally missed a beat in his long dance with Raider. Only dropping rapidly to the ground and rolling saved Airmaster's cockpit from being entirely smashed in by the Mjolnir hammer. "Dammit, dammit!" he cursed, trying to pull his focus back together. He could handle a freak like the Boosted Man in Raider, but it wasn't easy.

Guilt and anger twisted Shin's guts as he heard the tell-tale noise, the death rattle of an allied MS. He knew that he might not have been able to make a difference, and yet... and yet...

"Loran? Loran!" Lowe screamed. He left off chasing the Frosts, Red Frame's eyes swiveling toward Turn-A's smoking remains. Opening his comms channels up to receive more frequencies, hoping for any sign of Loran's survival, he instead heard Scirocco's laughter.

Olba moved to fire at Red Frame while it was caught unawares, but a thought from Shagia stilled him. #No, no. Let him busy Scirocco...#

Lowe Gear was by nature a gentle man, more inclined to using his hands to create than to destroy. He so loved the inner workings of Mobile Suits that he could not bring himself to regard them as weapons; to him, all mechanical things were beautiful. Yet the obscene sound of Scirocco's laughter filtering into his cockpit ignited a fury him.

He turned from the Frosts and propelled himself at the Messala, backpack thrusters flaring. "You son of a bitch!" he screamed, grief tearing at his voice.

From the sounds alone Witz knew this could only end in disaster. "Lowe, man, don't! Keep yourself together!" He would have said more, but Raider gave him no time to focus, wading inexorably toward him while swinging his damned wrecking ball. Witz fired, and this time his irritation helped him focus. A shot from his buster rifle sailed clear through Raider's shoulder, sending the Mjolnir and the arm that wielded it flopping to the ground.

It was only a momentary respite; Clotho howled in animal fury within the cockpit and began firing back at him with his shield-mounted beam cannons, his reflexes somehow a little faster than before. Witz's concentration was reabsorbed as the battle took on new fury, and he accepted that Lowe would have to live or die on his own.

Lowe kept Red Frame to the ground as he barreled forward. His palm outlet's electrical charge was dialed too low to ignite his beam saber, and he was too angry to want to recalibrate it. While one hand began to squeeze off shots from his beam rifle, the other went to sheathe at Red Frame's side. The Gerbera Straight would be more than enough to handle mere gundarium, and was better than Scirocco deserved.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

The Messala is never depicted fighting outside of space in Zeta Gundam, but in games it moves with the same "hovering" style typical of a Rick Dom. After studying its feet in line art, I decided that made enough sense for me.


	16. Chapter 16

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Frosts' scheme finally swings into action, while Scirocco continues to dominate the battlefield.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The hundred seconds had elapsed. The Frosts wanted to begin the retreat now, and Olba opened an encrypted comms channel to the Dogos Gear. Flay was quick to receive it, anxiety all over her face.

"It's time," Olba said. "Be ready to receive us."

"What about Stellar?"

"She's have to wait. Now is our only chance."

Flay looked a little sick at the thought, but she understood expediency. Olba and Shagia weren't going to fire the Satellite Cannon; they never intended to, and actually couldn't yet. She didn't quite understand their explanation, but it had something to do with the weapon being in standby mode. It wouldn't be able to recognize a firing request that used Scirocco's brainwave from until the signature was uploaded manually into its database. The Frosts claimed they could do this, but would need access to the Satellite Cannon's lunar control facility in order to do so.

All along, the Frosts' intent was to first obtain Scirocco's Newtype signature, then draw him into battle and abandon him there. They would take over the ship and immediately send it into space. It would have been nice to be rid of Michelo as well, but he would be dealt with in time. All Stellar's loss meant is that it would be especially important to make sure Raider was recovered, so the ship retained some additional fighting power.

Flay opened a comms channel with Raider. "Clotho!" she said. For a moment she heard no coherent answer. Clotho was making bizarre screaming and gurgling noises in the depths of his frenzy, only occasionally approaching a sound like a half-muttered curse.

She tried again, nose wrinkling at the disgusting display. "Clotho! CLOTHO!" Her voice became quite shrill.

"WHAT?!" Clotho howled back at her. His eyes were hideous to look upon.

"You have to come back now! It's time!"

"I'M NOT FINISHED YET!"

"That doesn't matter!" Flay did her best to sound absolutely authoritative. "This is a direct order! Stop fighting and return to the ship!"

Clotho did not give her the grace of a coherent answer. If anything, his screams grew more hateful and tortured. But in the wider view of the battle that played out over the Dogos Gear's forward screen, she could see Raider transform into MA mode and begin moving away from its opponent, only firing to try and drive Airmaster back.

Satisfied, she got the boarding hatches ready to open and started firing up all of the protocols associated with making one of these ships ready to ascend into space.  
She had studied these procedures for a good week, and figured out what the Beyonder had and hadn't automated. She had no intention of being the plan's weak link. If they failed, it would be someone else's fault.

-X-X-X-

The smoke still rose from Turn-A's wreckage as the Messala and Red Frame clashed. Scirocco found Red Frame both a more substantial and more disappointing opponent. Red Frame was primitive compared to the Cosmic Era machines he had already examined, lacking even Phase Shift or Trans-Phase armor, and utterly banal next to the exquisitely unique Turn-A. Red Frame's pilot, however, was both genius and madman. His movements, if not unpredictable, frequently embodied the least likely of the possibilities Scirocco's Newtype mind could conceive. It was as if Lowe Gear sought to play a constant game of Russian Roulette with himself, on a MS-sized scale.

Scirocco began using his standard tactics when facing uninteresting opponents, strafing widely with his beam cannons. Lowe did not make the usual mistake when facing them. Instead of trying to go left or right in the air, or down to the ground where his mobility would be contained, he fired his thrusters at their hardest and turned himself sideways. Red Frame rocketed upwards in a slow spiral and flipped over at the apex of its jump. Lowe then used Red Frame's verniers and thrusters to propel it forward, sending his MS down in a gentle arc that landed him safely behind the Messala. Scirocco could neither raise the trajectory of his beam cannons nor turn quickly enough to entirely protect himself.

A shot from Red Frame's beam rifle pierced one of the Messala's rear thrusters with a shudder and hiss of melting metal. The angle of penetration wasn't enough to entirely take one of the six thrusters offline, but he'd lose speed and a certain amount of maneuverability to it. Pride wounded, Scirocco completed the Messala's half-turn around and extended one arm. The forearm hatch opened, and the remaining two grenades in his launcher's clip soared out at Red Frame.

Red Frame's response, of course, was the most ridiculous of all possibilities. Like a comic book samurai, the machine steadied himself, then sent the Gerbera Straight lashing out in a slice so quick, so precise, that it was no more than a glittering line in the air. Both grenades fell to the ground in halves, destroyed so quickly they couldn't explode. Scirocco was baffled; at the very least, Red Frame's pilot had to be using some sort of advanced targeting computer to augment his skills. They otherwise exerted little pressure, suggesting they were happening almost spontaneously.

Lowe had no real concept of what it meant for a Newtype to pilot a Mobile Suit. Their abilities obliterated the possibility of surprise, and the outcome of most battles was decided based simply on who didn't see who coming. When Scirocco paused, struggling to properly interpret the movements of a man whose fighting style seemed to be based on sheer whimsy, Lowe misjudged and saw a chance to attack.

Red Frame surged forward, with the same deadly sense of samurai speed. The Gerbera Straight flashed out in a wide, silver arc. Lowe meant to take the Messala's outstretched arm at the joint, then the other, and then to cut the rest of the machine down with impunity once its close-range weapons were gone. Even in the depths of his hatred a man like Lowe had not thought so far ahead as Scirocco's death, though he would not be sorry if Scirocco ended up dead. Lowe simply could not premeditate the act.

There was a sickening jolt as Red Frame's arm failed to complete the swing. Something had gone terribly wrong, and a glance downward revealed that the Messala had another sickening surprise in store. The "gauntlet" over the forearm that housed its grenade launcher and beam saber was not a gauntlet at all, but actually a separate arm that sprouted from the same elbow.

A heavily-armored three-fingered metal claw had folded out of the metal around the grenade launcher's firing hatch, easily able to catch hold of the Gerbera Straight's solid metal blade. Now it held it in an iron grip, tethering the Red Frame dangerously close to the Messala. Lowe had his Mobile Suit heave backward, but to no avail.

Scirocco grinned as he had the Messala's vice claw powerful enough to move in the super-heavy gravity of Jupiter, jerk Red Frame down by its sword. Lowe tried to let go of the Gerbera Straight, to break free of the deadly momentum, but it was already too late. As Red Frame fell slightly forward, the Messala sent the ignited beam saber in its other hand slamming upwards to meet it. The tip pierced Red Frame's chest and then cored through the cockpit, consigning another of the White Base defenders to an instantaneous death. Scirocco sheared the blade downward, making sure he hit the battery, before kicking the machine's remains away. Explosions wracked and scored Red Frame's body as it fell. Lacking a reactor of its own, Red Frame did not go up in the fireball that Scirocco had hoped for.

-X-X-X-

Another hiss of static squawked through Airmaster and Impulse's comms channels. Hearing Shin could force himself forward no more, not even for Stellar's sake. His eyes watered, and guilt crushed his spirit. He would never be able to think of this death as anything but his fault.

Witz was distracted at the time. Raider had spontaneously broke off its attack, transformed into MA mode, and then begun retreating back toward the Dogos Gear. It was by dogged instinct that Witz transformed Airmaster into MA mode to try and pursue, before he realized it was no feint but a legitimate, apparently spontaneous retreat.

When the static death rattle barked over Airmaster's speakers, a few realizations hit him. For one, he had somehow lost two allies in roughly two minutes. A single unit was responsible for the carnage, and with the other Dogos Gear combatants retreating, he was now alone on the battlefield with that deadly unit. Help was on the way, according to sensors, but closing the gap across the battlefield would take time. More importantly, the lone unit he was facing was piloted by a Newtype, and Witz knew quite well that in comparison, he was nothing special.

This was not a situation for fighting bravely. This was a situation for running the hell away. Airmaster peeled away from the retreating Dogos Gear MS and turned in a wide arc, intending to rendezvous with nu Gundam (he assumed it was nu, anyway) before he tried to fight the Messala. Scirocco did not yet suspect anything untoward, assuming Raider was pulling back to offer the semi-competent Frosts additional cover fire. He converted the Messala into its MA mode and roared after Airmaster.

Witz had really been hoping Scirocco would be content to let him go. Now he had the unsettling feeling of being chased by a dragon. Airmaster might be more maneuvering as an MA, but the Messala's six thrusters gave it a ridiculous advantage in pure speed. Its beam cannons were still usable, and they erupted fire at Airmaster from a distance. Witz did his best to juke and weave through the volleys, but he was only human.

He felt his machine shudder and the warning lights go on; it looked like something had torn through a wing, hit a propulsion unit. Airmaster was heading into a crash-landing. If one of the transformation mechanisms had been hit, trying to go into MS mode would be instant death. He'd have to ride it out and pray that the damned Messala didn't try to finish the job before he hit the ground.

With that thought in mind, the thunderous crash as Airmaster plowed into the ground was actually somewhat comforting. There was the usual rattling and shaking, lights and warning alarms, near-blackouts as his head shook and helmet crashed into things. Airmaster finally came to a stop, and Witz found himself flickering in and out of consciousness. He felt a little damp along one side, and wondered if he was bleeding. That'd be just his luck.

The ground behind him trembled. Airmaster's internal sensors were working well enough to inform him that a MS-sized something had touched down about a hundred yards from Airmaster's wreck. Son of a bitch, had he survived a crash just so the Messala could walk over and step on his cockpit? Wouldn't that just be his luck...

Well, he shouldn't have expected any better. He was just a jerk out to make a buck in the best MS he could handle. Of course he wouldn't survive a fight with an evil Newtype that was out for blood. He would die here, and he would never get the money back to his family, and protecting Tifa would be a job for the others... and no one would ever know what happened to him, or why.

Witz was resigned to his fate as he felt the vibrations of the Messala's movements grow ever-nearer. Something bright shone above him. Well, at least beams were quick.

What was left of Airmaster's sensors began making buzzing noises Witz was too light-headed to take an interest in. Something else crashed down abruptly in front of Airmaster. The lights above his cockpit grew brighter, but death didn't come for him. Glancing upward, he could make out the silhouettes of enormous arms, then an inscrutable explosion. One of the battling MS forced back its opponent.

Witz fought through the fog of impending unconsciousness to flick his comms array open. Voices screamed at each other.

"-- you're still too late!" Scirocco, sounding a little angry.

"I have time enough to make you pay!" Oh, good, it was Amuro. Now the battle would be Newtype vs. Newtype.

Witz was almost sorry he wouldn't be able to watch it. There weren't many people alive – where he came from, anyway – who'd be able to say they'd seen a spectacle like that first hand. Still, his head felt heavy and his arm hurt, making unconsciousness seem like an attractive option. Whether or not he woke up again, he'd leave in fate's hands. It seemed to him that the outcome of a fight between Newtypes would be preordained to begin with, anyway.

-X-X-X-

Amuro was perfectly aware of Loran's death while nu Gundam finally managed to sail down White Base's cramped launch ramp. He new he would not arrive in time to save Lowe. When it was clear that saving Witz was possible, then nothing on Earth would stop him from doing so. The difficulty of getting nu launched properly melted away in the face of that urgency, becoming something he could do without thinking.

He hadn't piloted nu Gundam in atmosphere before, but its tremendous thruster output meant that gravity didn't slow it much. It's larger frame – more on scale with Scirocco's Messala than the other Gundams on the field – allowed it to carry a heavier armor plating without losing speed, and the careful design of the plates allowed for superior joint protection without sacrificing any of the range of movement an 0087 Gundam might have enjoyed. Amuro hoped that an extra six years of technology advancement and personal experience would put him on the field as Scirocco's equal.

As he made his approach, it was clear that Scirocco wasn't prepared for the sudden appearance of an opponent who could sense and exert significant pressure. Amuro tilted nu's tower shield outward, setting up an optimal shot with its integrated beam cannon, and then fired a pinpoint shot down at the Messala. It struck the vernier than Lowe had damaged earlier, this time doing enough damage to take one of the thrusters completely offline. Transforming into MA mode would be out of the question now, any attempt at atmospheric flight doomed to instability. The damage forced Scirocco to take pause as nu made its landing, Amuro ignited his machine's beam saber so he could use melee skirmishing to force the Messala back from Airmaster's wreckage.

Everything Amuro planned happened within the space of a second. Scirocco wasn't entirely ready to face an opponent who could exert such pressure, and appear so quickly. His senses still worked swiftly to make sure he reacted before the Messala was torn passively apart. He raised one of his sabers to clash with nu Gundam's, feeling surprise as he realized the energy blades were roughly in scale to each other. Nu Gundam's frame was so large that its glittering green eyes were level with the Messala's overhead beam cannons.

Despite using the traditional lines of the Federation's Gundam design, nu seemed a more serious and mature machine. Grey and black replaced gaudy white and blue. While not quite sophisticated enough to seem Jupiterian, a quick scan of its body revealed a surprisingly mature commitment to having a proper array of fixed and optional armaments ready. It had the oversized thrusters that ensured swift movement in gravity and even greater speed in space. The Federation wouldn't be capable of designing, let alone construction, something like this for years. Clearly the Amuro Ray that Scirocco faced was the product of a near-future time.

The two opponents fought lightly, testing each other. Scirocco was not overly eager to ensure the death of Airmaster's pilot, and prudently fell back from the wrecked machine. While fighting with a guardian's fury, Amuro's reflexes were so efficient and precise that he could actually nu's single beam saber to ward away searching blows from both of the Messala's energy blades. Scirocco noted that Amuro was not an aggressive combatant, his blows circular. A thrust or slash always held a little something back, ready to become a parry or counter.

He ceased to attack, drawing his swords back as if for a breather. He was confident that his opponent would be too chivalrous to press his advantage. Scirocco said, "Captian Ray, you do realize that if we fight out this skirmish in earnest, we'll be here for at least an hour."

Amuro indeed drew back. His voice was grudging, and he didn't seem disturbed by the prospect of a marathon fight. "If you surrender now, you'll live. That's all the mercy I can offer you."

His opponent's sheer arrogance was galling. His ship would pay for it. Scirocco glanced toward his sensor array, trying to locate the Frosts' MS and Raider. Surely the Satellite Cannon would be ready to fire by now? Yet when Scirocco brought up a visual of the Frosts' MS, it failed to reveal anything that looked like a doomsday attack in the making. Instead, the two MS and Raider appeared to be calmly going about the process of re-boarding the Dogos Gear, as if a general retreat had been sounded.

In an instant, Scirocco knew that he was betrayed. The Frosts had no intention of firing their Satellite Cannon, or perhaps there had never been a Satellite Cannon to begin with. He patched a communication through to Virsago immediately. "Shagia, you appear to be retreating. On whose orders?"

Shagia's response was blandly polite. "Mine, Lieutenant Scirocco. I fear we must be parting ways now. Good luck, and I sincerely hope you don't try to pursue us. It would be a great tragedy if, after performing so gallantly in combat, you were to die under our beam cannons."

Scirocco cut communications, having no more words for the treacherous elder Frost brother. A disgusted noise rose in this throat. Hopefully Michelo would decide to smash Shagia's traitorous skull in. Failing such a happy accident, Scirocco silently vowed that he would slay everyone aboard White Base, commandeer the ship, and devote all of his remaining personal energies to the complete and utter destruction of the Frost Brothers.

Amuro was in an instant transformed, in Scirocco's eyes, from a potentially dangerous rival to an infuriating roadblock. A true will to fight boiled up in Scirocco, completely unlike the desultory play he'd engaged in earlier. His own survival was at stake now, and he had nothing more to lose.

Perhaps Amuro had appraised the situation and guessed at what was going on, or perhaps his Newtype intuition let him understand subconsciously. Regardless, when the Messala flew at him with an overhead slash clearly meant to tear nu shield's in half, Amuro was ready to evade the attack and respond in kind with a sweeping slash.

The mood of the encounter suddenly changed, the pressure between them growing heavy and ominous. Now nu Gundam and the Messala would be locked in an all-out battle that could only end with the death of one of the pilots. Scirocco had no further need for civility, and Amuro felt no further obligation to be kind. When their sabers clashed, it was with a shrill roar, as if the skies themselves were screaming.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

In the classic UC Gundam series, "pressure" is a term used to describe the sensation a Newtype feels when psychically detecting a swift movement or important event. Great pressure can indicate something particularly momentous or dangerous, or something a Newtype is sensing at the very limits of their ability. Lots of different things can cause pressure, and a simple failure to focus can mean a Newtype fails to sense something they would have otherwise noticed.

Even in errata and sidestories, the UC is largely silent about how Newtypism works. Certain classic abilities like limited precognition are obviously available to all Newtypes, while some characters have more distinct abilities that are unique reflections of their personality. For my purposes, I am treating Newtypism as a range of powers that can manifest from a person, with their own personality and experiences playing a large role in determining which abilities they develop.

What this means in practice is that while I am treating Amuro and Scirocco as two men essentially at the peak of their powers, I will not be treating them (or any other Newtypes that appear in the story) as people with exactly the same abilities. This is not a fact explicitly stated anywhere in Gundam canon, where Newtypes are meant mostly to be mysterious. I'm just taking this approach because I think it will allow for a more interesting story.


	17. Chapter 17

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Scirocco and Amuro's battle reaches its deadly climax.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The battle that raged on the field between White Base and the retreating Dogos Gear had no real precedent within the confines of the Dark History. When Kamille Biden fought Paptimus Scirocco in UC 0087, Scirocco's Newtype development far outstripped his opponent's. When Amuro Ray fought Char Aznable in UC 0093, Amuro dealt with a man a few years past his prime. The Beyonder's whims had conspired to pit his two "team captains" against each other when they were both approaching their peak development. The Dark History rarely permitted such a situation, even in the span of millions of years.

The pressure that lay over the battlefield was heavy; even an Oldtype would have felt unease there. The battle was fought now at melee range, the Messala's twin beam sabers matching against nu Gundam's saber and shield. The Gundam held the advantage for now, thanks largely to the shield's integrated beam cannon. The threat of a sudden burst destroying a knee joint forced the Messala to approach with extreme caution.

Of course, Scirocco well knew that if the shield was eliminated, nu Gundam would be vulnerable to direct frontal assault with grenades, and if pushed back, its own massive beam cannons. The Gundam's shield was already scored by deep scorch marks from glancing saber blows, and might be split in half at any moment.

The Mobile Suits' movements were swift, but very deliberate. There was no margin for error in a battle between two such Newtypes, who saw a thousand battles unfold in every second. Each man was struggling to find the vector of assault that had no possible defense, that was assured to yield victory. Failing that, a possibility of defense that was not realized would do.

Where Amuro would strive to force an opening through sheer swordsmanship, Scirocco struggled to create an opening through direct Newtype assault. Jupiter's harsh environment encouraged its Newtypes to develop aggressively in a way that the Earthsphere's Newtypes, hearts bound by gravity, simply could not. Scirocco's spirit stretched out to his opponent's, seeking to learn his weaknesses, to open the door to doubt, hesitation, and ruin.

Amuro was a more difficult opponent than most in this regard. Scirocco had reckoned him a failed Newtype because of his infamous lack of personal charisma, one of the first qualities a true Newtype should develop. Instead, he found that Amuro's inability to influence others was part of a more complex Newtype trait. Beneath the swirl of fleeting, surface emotions, Amuro's heart became like a thing of iron. It was not devoid of feeling, which in itself would have been a tremendous weakness. No, it was more of a barrier, a separation of self from the outside world. Emotions seethed beneath it, remote and unknowable.

The boundary could not be absolute. A separation like that would have long since become complete insanity. No, the barrier must be protective, a way to push out the very sort of outside influence Scirocco sought to exert. A spirit that reached in kindness might be allowed to pass, or a sickness of heart erode it from within. Otherwise, Amuro Ray was a man who looked out upon the world from behind the walls of a high tower. While not the advantage Scirocco hoped for, the insight was potent.

In a moment of daring, Scirocco brought both of the Messala's sabers down on that damnable shield at once. He didn't damage the Gundam's hand, more's the pity, but the shield itself sheared apart cleanly. Nu Gundam staggered back, unable to exploit the sudden opening the Messala offered. Now was the opening the Messala had waited for. The machine hovered backwards, rapidly, expending the last of its grenades to cover its retreat.

A lesser pilot – even a Newtype - certainly would have lost his Mobile Suit's hand, or perhaps the entire arm, in the ensuing explosions. Amuro's mind had already raced ahead of reality, improvising an escape. Nu Gundam raised the threatened arm defensively and deftly ejected the load of rapidly-inflating dummy units that stored themselves in the fingers. The stagger became a rapid leap backwards. The grenades detonated against the dummies as they floated forward. The explosions were not entirely harmless, enough to rattle nu Gundam on its feet, but the damage was merely superficial.

It's true that Amuro's spirit lacked when it came to aggressive Newtype ability, but he wasn't insensate. Even a rebuffed attack like Scirocco's left him with a certain sense of the other Newtype's spirit, a connection unwanted and impossible to ignore. In such a heated battle, he could easily forge that contact into a heavy chain, shackling his opponent's consciousness to both himself and the battle.

#You're only delaying the inevitable.#

Scirocco arched an eyebrow. Telepathy? That Amuro was capable of it under any circumstances was a surprise. It was simple enough to answer in kind. #Your confidence, Captain Ray, seems misplaced.#

The Messala halted in its retreat. Now it was far enough back that its cannons could manage to hit a land-bound target. Scirocco let fly with the first salvo. He knew he only needed to land one shot to end even an advanced opponent like nu Gundam.

Nu Gundam evaded with no more than two thruster-assisted steps to the side, Messala's fire sizzling through the air mere meters away. #Even if you do kill me, what then? Do you think you can kill the rest of us? Do you really think you can out-battle a capital ship, when it comes to that?#

Scirocco grunted in annoyance. He corrected the Messala's angle and fired again, and again. Ordinarily he tried to respect the recommended recharge cycle for such high-caliber beams in such a physically small mount like his Messala, but now he had to outpace the inhuman reaction times of nu Gundam's pilot. The Messala could handle a little overheating, if that was the price to be paid for nu Gundam's destruction.

To Scirocco's mounting annoyance, nu Gundam's pilot didn't crack under the escalating pressure. Each and every salvo was evaded neatly, elegantly, with the minimum movement required to get clear. Nu Gundam was moving more like a man than a machine, and the pilot kept nagging at him, a needle driving into Scirocco's brain.

#This battle is already over, Scirocco, and you're already a dead man. You just refuse to admit it.#

-X-X-X-

The Gundam NT-1 'Alex' stood a few hundred meters to the side of the area that White Base's catapults emptied into. It was not a large or, really, remarkable suit in any way, at least to look upon. The suit's Federation pilot had proven remarkably gracious when it came to letting Char have it, her generosity perhaps spurred on by the sudden loss of two other allies. The Alex's eyes turned toward the battle raging just past the horizon, and Char was deep in thought.

A scream tore through the air as his companion emerged from the launch ramp, and headed for the ground. The GP-02 was not quite so large as Amuro's hulking nu, but it made up for that in sheer sinister aspect. If a Zeon grunt on the field had offered a description of the Federation's hideous White Devil, then the GP-02's demonic face and ogre-like body would have surely been the result. It was even more vicious-looking with its optional bazooka armament, but Lieutenant Gato had insisted on leaving it behind for whatever reason.

"Commander Char?" Gato asked as his machine touched down. The GP-02 was unsettlingly agile, the super-thick armor studded with verniers.

"Assessing the situation, Lieutenant," Char replied.

Gato glanced down at the GP-02's sensor arrays. It indicated two MS fighting at close range, kilometers away. He couldn't think of what else there might be to it, and waited for the other man to say something more intelligible.

There was an uncomfortably long pause. "We need to approach without exerting enough pressure to tip Scirocco off to our presence," Char said.

"Sir? Wouldn't that be to Captain Ray's advantage?"

"No. Amuro's using a methodical approach... he's in more danger if Scirocco starts doing unpredictable things." Char paused, and when he spoke again, he seemed to be thinking aloud. "... Amuro's getting the upper hand. If we can approach without drawing any attention, we can finish Scirocco quickly with an ambush."

The plan was a little underhanded for Gato's personal taste, but he could see the expediency of it. A Federation lapdog like Scirocco hardly deserved any better, anyway. "I understand, sir. It seems it would be best to approach on a circular path, at traveling speed."

Char was quite pleased. Gato was everything you could want in a hatchet man. "Yes. We should split up, too. Two separate machines will be less noticeable than a pair... you take the east, I'll take the west."

"Yes, sir." The GP-02 began promptly ambling off in the assigned direction. Char had no doubt that Gato would follow his orders superbly, and to the absolute letter.

He fired the Alex's thrusters and tried to get the outdated (to him, anyway) machine headed forward at an acceptable speed. The Alex was an outstanding suit, by One Year War standards, in terms of flexibility and mobility. It might actually be tuned a little looser than his custom suits were, and it could definitely process data faster. It wasn't good enough to make Char stop missing his Hyaku Shiki, of course, and its landspeed was simply inadequate.

If he was being perfectly honest with himself, Char had to admit that he and Gato were a little superfluous. Even at this distance, his intuition told him that Amuro would probably win on his own. What worried him was the very real possibility that Amuro might beat Scirocco so badly that he ended up not killing him. Amuro could be vicious enough if his life was on the line, but once he had the upper hand, he was loathe to play executioner.

Char had no such petty scruples, and was glad for it. He could make the kinds of practical decisions that would always be beyond the grasp of men like Amuro Ray. Whatever value they might have gotten from a forced surrender on Scirocco's part was diminished so long as the Frosts were still at large. No, that bastard Scirocco had it coming, and Char wanted to be able to say that he was the one who had the will to finish him off.

-X-X-X-

#A dead man?# Scircco was incredulous. #Is that a threat?# He wasn't so incredulous that he missed a beat with the withering hail of beam fire he was laying down. The law of averages required nu Gundam to fail an evasive maneuver sooner or later, and Scirocco believed he would outlast Amuro if it came down that.

#No, just a fact. You know I'm from your future, don't you?# Amuro wasn't experiencing nearly as much stress as Scirocco might have liked to think he was. Processing spatial and combat data was perhaps the most mundane of Newtype abilities, but it was the one he'd honed most completely. Instead he was thinking ahead to when he'd mount his counter-offensive, and how. #You failed completely, and left the Earthsphere in a shambles!#

At that moment, Scirocco would've given anything for the ability to somehow shut Amuro Ray out of his mind. Everything the other man stated made sense, and a telepathic lie was an exercise in futility. He couldn't ignore it, yet he couldn't afford to loose the anger and uncertainty building in him. #Great intentions demand great risks! What about that would you understand? You're more of a robot than any Mobile Suit... a masterless machine, waiting for the command to fight!#

Amuro winced in his cockpit. It was too familiar an accusation to sting deeply, but a pain like an open sore throbbed in his heart. The burden of regret would be with him, perhaps beyond his physical death. #That was true, once... but I've learned how to hate since then, Scirocco, and maybe it's you I have to thank for that.#

Nu Gundam moved like lightning, fluid and deadly. The hyper bazooka was off of its backpack storage rack as it flared its thrusters and leaped back, defying the Messala's low-angled shots. Settling the launcher on nu's shoulder, aiming, firing... all happened at the speed of thought. The first shot was in the air when Amuro prepared the second.

It was a little worse than if Scirocco had been caught flat-footed. He could begin to try an evasive action, but the explosive round still connected... with the part of the thruster backpack that supported the Messala's left beam cannon. A hellish explosion shook the Mobile Suit, shattering its shoulder, the cannon twisted and torn off, the thrusters demolished.

Before the Messala could correct its stance, another round flew directly into its right knee joint. The entire leg was torn awayin the ensuing explosions, and gravity drew the Messala's wreckage down to the ground. The twin explosions had buckled and shorn much of the armor off of the thick torso, and the Messala's own shrapnel pierced through to the cockpit.

Scirocco wasn't dead yet. His luck was much poorer. Wreckage had been forced down and through the linear cockpit's walls, pulping one arm. Flying shrapnel ripped upwards, tearing through the control banks and shearing through Scirocco's legs. Broken glass from the shattered panoramic monitor studded his body. When the Messala's remains crashed to the ground, the impact could have only made the crippling pain too intense to be conceived.

Nu Gundam landed, shakily. Scirocco's mortal agony and hatred boiled up at Amuro's mind, a bloody red tide. Even against this monstrous assault, his instinctive mental defenses held, but only barely. He became acutely aware of the psychoframe's mechanical whine, a noise which usually sank into the background of nu Gundam's operations. There was no telling what effect this interaction was having on it.

Scirocco's spirit screamed at him, an impulse now too debased for words. It begged Amuro to kill him, and Amuro knew very well that he could. A single round from the hyper bazooka would dash the cockpit block to pieces, and end Scirocco's suffering in an instant. The act could even be considered merciful, and yet...

Amuro's intuition welled up from the inviolate recesses of his spirit. What use had a proud man like Scirocco for his enemy's kindness? In an instant, Amuro could see the monstrousness of Scirocco's true intent, the void that awaited him like a howling maw.

"-- you'd take me with you?" Amuro breathed. "No, I won't let you. I won't let you, but..."

Amuro could now see a terrible emptiness at the center of Scirocco's spirit, and realized that only the man's hatred sought to pass beyond his death. Everything else he had been would wither away, isolated, forgotten in the wake of his need to drive his enemies into darkness with him. A death like that debased everything, and sinned against the world.

"Don't do this!" Amuro found himself pleading. He didn't know what else to do. He had no problems with being Scirocco's killer, but wouldn't wish absolute annihilation on anyone. "Just pass beyond... please, or you'll destroy yourself!"

Amuro could make no difference, not with words. Scirocco's pride demanded he equate his physical death with absolutely destruction, and fate conspired to give him a target for his final outpouring of hatred for the living.

Two pin-pricks of pressure teased at the edge of Amuro's consciousness. In his distraction, he detected them far after he should have. Even as he went to open comms and warn them to stay back, a beam lanced through the Messala's remains. The reactor breached, the MS went up in a great ball of fire. A twisted emotion, the dark twin of joy, welled up in Scirocco's spirit as it found a suitable target for its final vengeance.

"Char!" Amuro cried.

Perhaps the NT-1 Alex had meant to land gracefully, but instead it staggered on its feet. Char made an unhealthy choking sound that was quite audible over his open comms channels. Scirocco's spirit poured itself out in hatred of Char, but Amuro could not perceive the event clearly enough to know what damage might have been done.

The GP-02 touched down seconds later, its pilot utterly insensate to the psychodrama. "Commander?" Gato asked.

There was a pause, and a sound of heavy breathing. Char's voice was strained when he spoke. "... I'm alright, Lieutenant."

Amuro exploded in fury. "You idiot! You know you aren't!"

Gato could not quite grasp what had happened, beyond assuming it was some sort of Newtype matter that couldn't possibly have anything to do with him. It was easiest to pretend like nothing unusual was happening. "... Commander, if you can still pilot, we should probably return to White Base now."

Char chuckled, if darkly. "Scirocco certainly tried to pull... something. I don't think he succeeded. Anyway, Lieutenant Gato's right. Let's go back."

Amuro choked on his own anger and frustration, but there was really nothing he could do as long as Char continued to feign nonchalance. He wheeled nu Gundam around and prepared for the long flight back to base, saying nothing to the other two men.

Gato felt very peculiar about the entire incident. He mulled it over as the GP-02 began to return to base just behind the NT-1 Alex, which showed distinct signs of shaky piloting every so often. Char clearly had some point in mind when he asked him to sortie, but it was obvious something inexplicable had gone wrong. He had no way of knowing how wrong, though.

Ultimately Gato decided to just focus on the things he could understand, the inevitable end of any train of thought he had concerning Newtype phenomena. Scirocco was dead now, for all that Char had ended up having to finish him, and they had made important gains in the battle that outweighed their inevitable losses. Once they hunted down the Frost Brothers, surely everything would be over.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-


	18. Chapter 18

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base begins picking up the pieces in the wake of the first battle of the Gundam, while Dogos Gear schemes anew.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Michelo glanced up as Mobile Suits began filing back into the hangar bay where he lounged. He saw the Frosts' boring machines, the crazy kid's ugly lump... but no sign of Scirocco's purple thing. Hell, wasn't he still fighting out there? Michelo had to glance at the monitor feed to confirm it. The purple thing was squaring off with a giant of a military Gundam, yeah, though the images were getting smaller. The ship was already moving away from the battlefield... or the "scene of the crime" as it were.

He waited until the pilots began filing out of their machines, then rose to his feet. The Frosts were sweating hard, the kid twitchy like a junkie on coke. "Aren't we missin' a couple people?"

Shagia was clearly unsure how to handle Michelo's approach. "Ah... most unfortunately, Stellar was taken hostage by the enemy."

"An' Scirocco?"

Shagia couldn't help but smile a little. "We felt his leadership wasn't really working out for us. He'll hold off White Base while we get a head start."

"So what you mean," Michelo said, "is you decided you wanted to be charge, and figured the easiest way to take over was to dump Scirocco when he left the ship. Right?"

"It's so crude when you put it that way, but..." Shagia's pride in his double-cross was obvious.

His smug smile faded when Michelo seized him by his shirtneck and hoisted him a full three feet off the floor. Shagia was tall enough that this only underlined Michelo's terrifying strength.

"Brother!" Olba shouted in alarm.

"You listen to me, you little pansy," Michelo snarled. "You don't run things on this ship, capiche? I do! I always did! Scirocco was my flunky, and if you want his place, you and your creep brother better keep me happy."

Shagia croaked, unable to breathe. Michelo squeezed tighter and gave him a little shake to make sure his point was absolutely clear. "You understand, prettyboy?"

Genuine terror misted over Shagia's eyes. The realization that Michelo could kill him with a mere flick of his wrist – or one of those flashing kicks – finally sank in. He didn't, and couldn't, nod in the position Michelo held him. Just to see the fear was submission enough for Michelo to decide that letting the Frosts live would be worth his while.

He dropped Shagia to the floor, casually. Olba ran immediately to his brother's side, like the sniveling girlfriend in a bad movie. Michelo quietly decided that he'd kill that one first, and make sure the other one heard the screaming.

"Brother? Are you alright...?" Olba said.

Shagia coughed and tried to reassemble his tattered dignity. He could dimly hear Clotho laughing behind him, hysterically. "Fine, fine..." he croaked.

Michelo loped back to his former position at Neros's foot, and settled back. "So where are we goin' now, huh? Running away from fights isn't my style."

"The moon," Olba answered, afraid his brother was too winded to speak coherently. "There's a weapon on the moon. It can destroy White Base with a single shot..."

Michelo glanced over and grinned again. He'd apparently scared the little one senseless, too. Good. "That so? Shoulda spoke up earlier. Wake me when we get there." Then he closed his eyes, a show of trying to nonchalantly doze off once more.

The Frosts stared as Clotho giggled convulsively. Clearly Michelo remaining on the ship was far more of a complication to their schemes than they ever would have imagined.

-X-X-X-

White Base hovered mere meters away from the site of Airmaster's appalling crash landing. While Gato had escorted Char back to the White Base's hangar, Amuro's priority was making sure Witz was alright. Amuro half-expected to have lost Witz, too, another punishment of his shortcomings.

Once Amuro found the external access panel for Airmaster and managed to trigger the hatch release, he found that the reality of the situation was not quite so grim. Witz was unconscious and seemed to have gashed his head open on an impact – what possessed people to pilot things without wearing helmets? - but his breathing was regular.

Amuro used his machine's zipline to get back into the cockpit, and radioed the Bridge. "I think he's alive, but I'll need someone strong to help me pull him out. I don't suppose you could send Shin or Domon down?"

Christina's voice was extremely soothing to Amuro's jangled nerves. He hoped he wasn't developing a crush; that would be awkward for everyone involved. "Shin's in sick bay with that enemy pilot we rescued... I'm not sure he's ready for any heavy lifting yet. Domon?"

Domon was apparently in the bridge with her. "On my way."

Amuro tried not to audibly breathe a sigh of relief. He was frankly not in much of a mood to put up with Shin's childishness at the moment, and too tired to want to chide himself for being a hypocrite. He would be offering Bright some apologies if he ever saw the man again, though.

"Do you need any equipment sent down, Captain Ray? We don't have a whole lot, but..."

"No, Lieutenant McKenzie, thank you. I think nu Gundam can get the wreckage into the hangar bay during recovery... do you know anything about Char's condition?"

Christina tripped as she responded, unsure whether she should be calling the man Quattro or Char. She settled for just not using his name at all. "Er... he's injured? I hadn't heard anything, Lieutenant Gato didn't act like anything unusual happened during the sortie..."

Amuro scowled. With a ship full of Oldtypes, convincing people that Scirocco had done something dire to Char would be impossible. Mental injuries left no trace, and Char would surely pretend like nothing happened. If he pushes the issue, he'd just come off like a raving maniac. "I see. I'm sorry, I was just concerned... you may want to keep an eye on him. Anyway, I'll let you know when I need the hangar's bottom doors opened. Amuro out."

-X-X-X-

Christina sighed, pausing to adjust her headset. The battle had been a disaster from her point of view. Two pilots dead, both machines lost; Impulse was intact, but Shin wouldn't be back on his feet for about a day or so; Airmaster totaled, Witz injured or dead; even the machine they'd recovered from the enemy was damaged, and the pilot seemed to be in bad shape.

She'd seen some footage from the hangar of Shin pulled her from the quadruped machine's emergency access hatch, a frail girl with wispy hair whose limbs twisted and jerked against him. She hoped Shin knew how to take care of her... any serious ailment would be impossible to diagnose for this group of pilots and mechanics.

Garma paced the bridge like a caged tiger-- well, more like a caged housecat, in his case. "Damn the Frost Brothers! How much longer do we have to wait before we can pursue? They're getting away!"

"Lord Garma, we have injured to attend to, and many damaged machines. Without Lowe, the onus of the repair work is going to be on Captain Ray. If he thinks we need to salvage the field for spare parts, then we need to give him time to do it."

"Hours won't make much difference, if they did indeed set a course to leave Earth atmosphere," Gato said.

"And they did, unless the instruments decided to start lyin' to us," Ed said.

"So even with the advantage of future technology, I'm sure the Trojan Horse can catch up to them in time," Gato concluded. His mood was better than usual, owing to the prospect of battle on what Gato thought of as his home turf, zero gravity.

"Besides, their machines got messed up pretty bad too. They're gonna have to stop for repairs, probably at the first colony they hit... that's when we can probably get to them," Ed added.

Garma frowned, but couldn't overrule so many voices of reason so quickly. He flopped down in the commander's chair, heedless of the hard glances it drew from Ed and Christina. "Yes... yes, you're all right. I suppose I am too much a man of action... I wonder where Char is? Perhaps we could be developing combat strategy now."

"I believe he returned to his quarters for a rest. There was some sort of Newtype phenomena on the field when Scirocco was slain... similar to Shin's encounter with the Virsago's sonic attack," Gato said. "He says it's not serious, merely draining."

"Newtypes? Yes, both the White Devil and that damnable Scirocco claimed to be Newtypes, didn't they..." Garma scowled again, clearly thinking that perhaps it was no accident that Char suffered some strange Newtype-caused malady when he took the field to assist the treacherous White Devil. The idea that Char might be a Newtype never crossed his mind.

"Christ, that fight..." Ed mused. The conversation only reminded him of the awe-inspiring sight of nu Gundam going at the Messala. He'd never seen MS do things like that, and wouldn't have thought the fragile UC suits to even be capable of it.  
"No wonder you guys think Amuro's a devil. Coordinators don't even fight like that."

"The White Devil didn't defeat Scirocco's machine. The Red Comet did, while Captain Ray was hesitating. While I must admire Captain Ray's skill with operating a Mobile Suit, I find his sense of tactics questionable." The entire incident had actually come to upset Gato deeply. With the Messala so badly damaged, the pilot had to have been injured. Had the Captain spared Scirocco just to gloat over his suffering? It didn't seem impossible. Even he believed in giving opponents, no matter how loathsome, the honor of a quick death.

"I'll forgive him if Mr. Sou survived," Johnny said. "A man with that kind of skill could do much better than being a mercenary on a civilized world."

"If they do stop for repairs..." Garma began to muse aloud, "... I must find some way to contact Ms. Allster. She is an entirely civilized person and I am sure the Frost Brothers, or whoever is in charge now, are intimidating her into being cooperative..."

-X-X-X-

Flay brought some hot tea over from the brewer, four little tumblers steaming on a plastic platter. This breakroom was one of the countless dozens on the ship, but had become the particular headquarters for their little cabal. Flay had started thinking of it as a second home, a place to relax; even the tinny music of Clotho's game seemed a little cheerful, given the circumstances.

Shagia was being a bit of a baby about his manhandling, slumped against one of the couches as if mortally wounded. Olba also seemed to be enabling his brother's grandstanding, though, fretting over him as if he might die at any moment. Still, she could only imagine how much more melodramatic Garma would have been in the same position. Part of her was glad he was gone, although losing Stellar already had her feeling a little lonely.

She knelt momentarily to place a tumbler next to Clotho, who gave her know acknowledgment but would drink it when he was ready. Then she handed a cup to Olba, who promptly handed it off to his brother as if it was a valuable medicine. "Brother, here," he said.  
"Thank you," Shagia replied. He looked more tired and frankly a bit older than usual, especially when he drank.

Flay handed Olba a tumbler, and then sat beside him on the couch to take a dainty little sip of the hot, pale green liquid. "So I was thinking," she announced after savoring her tea in ladylike fashion. "After what you told me about what happened on the bridge, I think the only good way to deal with Michelo is going to be poison."

Shagia glanced sharply at her, more than a little surprised. "-- poison?"

Flay nodded. She paused to take another drink of tea before she elaborated on her idea. "Michelo may be very strong, but he's still human. If you give him enough cyanide or arsenic, it has to kill him just like it would anyone else."

Olba's eyes strayed toward Shagia's. He was perhaps more shocked by Flay's turn for the bloodthirsty. #Brother... you said she'd be dangerous, but I had no idea...#

#... neither did I.# Shagia shifted in his seat. "Does poison kill off those coordinators you have in the Cosmic Era? They sound something like Gundam Fighters."

"Oh, yes," Flay said. "That's where I got the idea, actually."

"Where would we get poison, though?" Olba asked. "Scour the ship and see if the Beyonder left anything we could use?"

Flay's nose wrinkled. "I've gone over the lists of what we have a bunch of times... there's nothing I recognize as poison, anyway. Maybe one of the weird medical things they left us in the pod room?"

Shagia was overcome by the sudden mental image of Michelo high on Clotho's combat drugs, frothing at the mouth and slaughtering everyone around him with abandon. "... no, I don't think that's a good idea."

"We'll be stopping for repairs before reaching the moon, yes?" Olba said.

"If there are any colonies in this world, I suppose..." Shagia mused.

"We could stop there and see about buying something. In settled area with plenty of people present is also going to have its fair share of schemers and murders, won't it?" Olba asked.

Shagia smiled a little, beginning to feel more himself. "Hmph, that's true. We'd want a very high quantity though... enough to kill two or three men at least."

Flay hummed pensively. "Mmm... I have an idea for how to get it quickly, too."

"What is it?" Olba asked.

Flay winked. "Let it be my secret for now... it'll be a little tricky. But just leave everything to me, and we'll be able to get rid of Michelo at our first stop, I promise."

-X-X-X-

The grim work of salvaging seemed to go by a little faster now that Amuro had Domon to accompany him. The other man didn't talk much, but that was fine for a natural introvert like Amuro. What was important to him was simply the assumption of companionship, and knowing he could say something if he wanted.

Domon had opted to ride on the machine's outside, perched on one of nu Gundam's massive hands. Amuro obligingly left the cockpit open as they moved about, so they could communicate if necessary. Said communication would involve shouting over the noise of nu's footfalls, of course, which made casual conversation highly impractical at best.

The duo let no bit of battlefield debris go to waste. Airmaster's severed wing, Raider's severed arm, the debris from the Messala's explosion... nothing was left behind that might even be useful as scrap down the line. Amuro wasn't sure how much he'd have to work with when it came to doing the repairs, and didn't want to waste anything.

A sad pause came when they finally ran across the remnants of Lowe's Red Frame. As scrap went, it was in marvelous condition. Only the cockpit and the torso block were damage. The arms and legs and all the wonderful delicate parts inside of them appears in perfect condition. Something about that seemed to stay Amuro's hand, as if it made him feel like too much of a vulture.

In the quiet, Domon finally spoke to say something that wasn't a matter of immediate necessity. "I should have fought."

"Hmm?"

"The battle... I should have gone out. With Shining Gundam, maybe I could have..."

"Gundams are used for a... sporting event in your world, aren't they?" Amuro asked, interrupting.

That wasn't quite right, but Domon didn't feel like trying to explain the Gundam Fight Treaty at the moment. "... something like that. Gundams fight in duels of honor, not... this." He lacked the words for it, not being a creative or artistic man. What he had seen of the battle on the field had been terrifyingly repugnant, machines hacking each other apart like great metal beasts.

"If you had gone out, and tried to duel Scirocco, it is possible Loran or Lowe might still be with us," Amuro said. His tone was even, one of fairness and rationality. "But it's very likely you would have simply died in one of their places, at the very least. It's also possible all three of you would have died."

Domon hung his head, gazing down at Red Frame's empty green-glass eyes. "I know. That is why..."

"You stayed on the ship?" Amuro finished Domon's thought again. "In all honesty, Domon, the situation escalated so quickly... what you did was probably wisest. It means you and your machine can be in top fighting shape if we need you in a future emergency."

Domon thought of trying to fight in a maelstrom of slaughter, against a savage monstrosity like Scirocco's Messala. The thought chilled him to the heart, the way nothing but Devil Gundam had before. He knew he would have to do it... his heart would never again be able to bear the guilt of being a bystander to bloody warfare. If the opponent was Michelo, he could know he would prevail, but if it was a Mobile Suit designed to kill and destroy, piloted by a heartless soldier...

"How do you do it?" Domon asked, voice soft.

"Hmm?"

"I watched your fight with the madman Scirocco. He tried to murder you, again and again, and yet..." Domon groped for words. "... you remained sane. He didn't take your honor from you."

Amuro's fighting style was unthinkably vicious by a Gundam Fighter's stance, but the cleanness of it stood out in Domon's mind. Amuro had not pushed for the advantage when his opponent backed away, hadn't moved to kill Scirocco when he was defenseless the way the man called Char had. It was a vestige of humanity that stood out in the savage wasteland of Scirocco's murders.

Amuro had absolutely no idea what to say. "Oh, I... well, I mean..." He could hardly make sense of exactly what Domon was saying. "... I guess, it's just my philosophy. I believe people can define themselves with their choices, no matter how bad the circumstances are."

"I don't understand," Domon said. He suddenly felt twelve years old again, listening to Master Asia... though his teacher would have never said anything in such a wavering tone of voice.

"It's... look, sometimes I'll have to fight and kill people, probably people who don't deserve it. That's part of doing a soldier's duty. That doesn't mean my heart has to enjoy it, or become numb to it... I don't have to kill an enemy who isn't a threat to anyone, I don't have to fight battles I don't believe in on some level... I don't have to be a monster because someone else is choosing that. That's all."

Domon thought this over, silently. Red Frame's wreckage lost the resemblance it had acquired, in his mind, to his own corpse in a theoretical future. He might be a prisoner of the Beyonder, but Amuro was right. His choices could still be his own. In that moment, he resolved to fight alongside his other companions, but not to kill knowingly. Accidents would be inevitable; even in the regulated Gundam Fights, lives could still be lost. Still, he could choose never to take a shot at a cockpit or a helpless enemy, preserving his honor no matter the consequences.

The silence embarrassed Amuro somewhat. It really felt like he had said too much. "Anyway, I need to get Red Frame back to the hangar. I'll put you on the ground-- look for anything that might be useful, could you?

Nu Gundam's hand quietly lowered the smaller man toward the ground, with Domon making an eight-foot leap off of to put himself on the ground. He had no idea what on the ground might be useful, but it felt educational to acquaint himself with the blackened grass and ozone stench of MS wreckage.

His foot happened to come down on a shard of something that wasn't ground. Some metal? When Domon looked down, though, he saw his foot had come down on a cracked computer screen. Cords dangled from it liked damaged appendages. The words "MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY" flashed repeatedly on its screen.

Domon leaned over to pick it up. The words on the screen changed. "Is Lowe okay?"

In a flash, Domon remembered Lowe talking to some sort of AI in his machine. It had survived somehow? Perhaps an explosion had blown it free. Regardless, it meant he had to be the bearer of bad news. "No. Lowe is gone." Domon wasn't sure how to be tactful about telling a computer its owner was dead, so he decided to go for the direct approach.

"..." appeared on the computer's screen. They shifted to the word "no", repeated more times than Domon could count. He had not thought that an AI might grieve, but seeing it gripped his heart in a vise of sadness.

"I'm sorry," Domon said, more gently. "Know he was avenged."

"..." appeared on the screen again. "Is it over?" finally replaced it.

"No," Domon said. "Some of our enemies escaped... Scirocco's allies betrayed him."

"I have to stop them. We have to stop this," appeared on the screen.

Domon found himself smiling at it. He had forgotten the name of Lowe's computer friend, but it seemed like a noble ally. "Of course. I am sure Amuro will be glad for your help."

When Amuro returned from situating Red Frame in the White Base hangar, he was indeed very glad to find out that Hachi had survived the explosion somehow. He immediately hooked it up to some of nu Gundam's systems, for a full diagnostic and damage check.

Their final salvage target of the day was Turn-A's remains, though Amuro admitted he wasn't sure what he could even do with any of its parts. While finding Hachi intact had been a pleasant surprise, something far more strange and terrifying awaited them when they found where Turn-A had fallen.

The machine was perfectly whole and intact, the white armor not even showing the scuffs and black marks of combat. Domon furrowed his brows at it, confused, and spoke once nu Gundam had stopped moving.

"Amuro? Didn't that machine lose its leg in the battle?"

"... yes, it did," Amuro said. "The cockpit was destroyed, that was how Loran died..."

A spark of hope leaped up in Domon's heart. "Do you think--?"

He didn't have to speak it aloud. Amuro was already unstrapping his safety harness. "Come on, let's get down to the ground."

Amuro brought Hachi with him. He could get ordinary data pads to interface with Turn-A's external access panels, sometimes, but Hachi seemed to ensure much more consistent results. The hip-mounted cockpit door hissed open...

A mysterious disappointment awaited them there. Loran was not inside, somehow alive, but otherwise the cockpit looked like it was completely new.

"This is seriously weird," Hachi flashed, once he was hooked up to a cockpit panel to run some diagnostics. "It's in perfect condition. You could pilot it back if you wanted to."

Domon peered down into the cockpit, where Amuro was testing the systems... the ones he understood, anyway. "Could this be more of the Beyonder's meddling?" Domon asked.

"Well... logically, we can't rule the Beyonder out of anything, but... then why just Turn-A? Why not Red Frame, too."

"Turn-A has a lot of locked-off subsystems," Hachi flashed. "It looks like it might have started running a subroutine after it was damaged, but I can't tell what it is, exactly. This encryption could take months to break."

"... could Turn-A have repaired itself, somehow?" Amuro mused.

Domon looked stricken at the suggestion. "That's impossible. No Mobile Suit can do that, unless..."

"It's impossible by conventional standards, but Turn-A somehow got its leg and cockpit back. Either it was the Beyonder, or it wasn't the Beyonder. If it wasn't the Beyonder, all we know is that after Loran died, Turn-A began running a program..." Amuro frowned. "But the evidence is all circumstantial."

"Take it back," Hachi flashed. "I can work on cracking Turn-A's encryption 24/7 now."

"Oh, we'll certainly take it back... but I will need you for repairs and maintenance, Hachi."

"That's just a few hours out of your day. I can still be on it while you sleep," Hachi replied.

"True enough. Well, Domon, do you mind staying here with nu Gundam? I'm going to see if I can get Turn-A back to White Base under its own power."

Domon slid off the reclining machine's pelvic chassis easily enough, and dashed back a few steps. He watched from the outside as the cockpit's yellow door closed over the cockpit hatch. Slowly, stiffly at first, Turn-A sat up like a man just stirring from a long sleep. Its motions got smoother and more event as the machine rose to its delicate-looking feet, getting its balance like a child taking its first steps. Turn-A's green-glass eyes flared with light as the machine awakened.

He knew that he should trust Amuro when it came to machines, even mysterious ones, but a sense of disquiet trouble Domon. The only machine he knew of that could spontaneously regenerate damage was Devil Gundam, or machines infested with Devil Gundam's DG Cells. Turn-A didn't seem sinister... and yet, somehow, he got the sense that the machine was hiding something in its layers of encryption and blocked-off programs.

Domon didn't believe in fate, or at least didn't want to, but a heavy sense of history and destiny lay in the air as Turn-A took its first steps forward with Amuro sitting in the pilot's seat. When it took off into the air, Domon for a moment felt that he could see the future of the Beyonder's damnable Gundam War playing out before him.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-


	19. Chapter 19

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base's fragile alliances begin to fall apart, while fresh treachery erupts on the Dogos Gear.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Garma Zabi's arrival on White Base effectively ended Amuro's tenure as White Base's de facto leader. Garma was born to power and the expectation of leadership, while Amuro was a natural introvert pressed into the role. Within a span of roughly forty-eight hours, Garma was spending most of his time in the captain's chair while Amuro had withdrawn completely into the confines of the hangar, spending all of his waking hours with the machines.

Such a tilt in the balance of power was inevitable. Where the departed Lowe and Loran had been staunchly neutral, Garma was an ardent Spacenoid, and Char was willing to pay lip service to any philosophy that advanced his personal agenda. In this case, it meant digging out a Zeon command uniform – though he'd have to content himself with his glasses instead of a proper mask – and sliding back into the Red Comet persona. Char could manipulate Garma most adeptly, Garma commanded Gato and Johnny's absolute loyalty, and Shin Asuka seemed willing to side with any Spacenoid faction over an Earthnoid one.

The Earth sympathizers – Edward, Christina, Amuro, and Domon – increasingly socialized only with each other, though Domon managed to be somewhat civil, by his standards, to the Zeon. Witz moved freely between the two groups, worried by the increasing factionalism and more than a little put off by the obvious tension between Amuro and Char-- it seemed petty in a way that true Newtypes weren't supposed to be. Char found the split frustrating, as it was only evidence of his total inability to influence Amuro's behavior in any way. Johnny, though he felt obligated to support Garma publicly, worried about the possibility of an Earthnoid mutiny or abandonment.

It was perhaps a sickening irony that when the political tensions of the Universal Century were dividing the ship so sharply, they should come across the accursed colony of Loum. Victim of nuclear weapons attacks in the One Year War, the Delaz Fleet's weapon in the abortive Operation British, a lingering symbol of peace's impossibility in 0087... Loum was a piece of the Universal Century's sordid history no one was truly ready to deal with, and that the pilots from other timelines couldn't even properly understand.  
It was also one of the most inconvenient possible locations for White Base's current Zeon-heavy crew. Unlike most colonies, Loum had always tended to sympathize with the Federation due to its close proximity to Earth and profitable electronics trade. After the Delaz Fleet tried to drop it on Earth, Federation support has hardened into vicious anti-Zeon, anti-separatist sentiment. It was hard to tell whether the Loum White Base dealt with now came from before or after Operation British, but it was obvious from Christina's first communications call to the colony's interim government that her uniform was the only reason they were being allowed to dock.

It called for a ship's meeting, the situation dire enough to bring both of the feuding factions together in one of White Base's briefing rooms. Even Amuro and Domon saw fit to attend, although Amuro didn't bother to change out of his mechanic's overalls for the occasion. It was obvious, as Garma stood at the podium at the front of the room, that he was taking Amuro's slovenliness as something of a personal affront.

"Gentlemen, ladies..." Garma nodded at Christina, who politely tried not to roll her eyes at his misplaced chivalry. "We find ourselves in dire straits. We need to make our repairs and gather information as quickly as possible, but the current governors of Loum are very likely to treat some of our personnel with undue hostility."

Shin was on his feet shortly before Garma stopped talking. "Then why are we even stopping here?! We need to catch up with the Dogos Gear, we don't have time for this!" By "we", Shin clearly meant Gaia's pilot, whose physical condition appeared to worsen by the day.

"At this point, what would we do if we caught up with it? Half of our machines are still damaged or otherwise unusable," Johnny said.

"Besides, the Frosts have to stop somewhere," Witz added. "They've got even less manpower than we do, and their machines are in worse shape."

"It's surprisingly easy to conceal a capital ship in dock somewhere, in a colony of this size." Amuro's contribution was clearly unexpected, drawing stares. "The Frosts are probably in Loum with us now."

"Yeah, their New Earth credentials would go a long way in this place, wouldn't they..." Witz said.

"Then let's get out there and find them and stop this useless talking," Shin grumbled as he sat down. In truth, he had no idea how to go about doing that.

"It's not useless, if we use our time wisely," Char rose from his seat and moved to the front of the room, where his public speaking skills would be most useful. "Our Zeon personnel can stay aboard and keep a low profile. Our Federation and irregular personnel can handle tasks that involve dealing with the locals and negotiating repair."

"Including Lieutenant Quattro?" Amuro asked. A little sarcasm made it through.

"You must admit, Amuro, that disguise would be prudent in this situation." Char sounded eminently reasonable, much to Amuro's frustration.

"There's a finite number of docks that can hold anything like the Dogos Gear in a colony," Shin said. He sounded like he was addressing the room at first, but soon it was clear he was just thinking aloud. "I'm going to go find out which one it's hiding in and force those bastards to make her better."  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ed spoke up. "What are you going to do if there's Alliance mixed in with 'em? Or Blue Cosmos?"

"I won't go out in uniform," Shin murmured. He had, in fact, not thought of that at all.

"Yeah, and that'll work great until you open your mouth and it's obvious you're a PLANT coordinator," Ed said. "Take somebody else with you or something, geez."

Garma didn't mind being upstaged by Char, but Ed was far too uncouch to get to have the last word in this situation. "He is correct, Mr. Asuka. There is no need for individual action in this scenario. I am certain we can find someone to assist you."

Shin looked rebellious until Gato spoke up. "I'm craving action myself, and I'm acquainted with Loum via intelligence reports. I can go undercover and assist Mr. Asuka in the search for the Dogos Gear."

Char and Johnny felt the impulse to sigh at the same time. Gato and Shin were between them the least subtle men on White Base, and perhaps the two complete worst candidates for any sort of recon duty. Garma, unfortunately, spoke before either of them could properly formulate a non-insulting objection.

"An excellent suggestion! See to it, Lieutenant Gato, Mr. Asuka." The die was cast; their chances of finding the Dogos Gear were quite nearly nil. At the very least, Gato and Shin seemed happy for an excuse to leave the briefing room and go do something more engaging.

"... in the meantime," Christina spoke up. "I can probably negotiate with Loum to give us dock access, but the governor makes it sound like there's virtually no military presence left on the colony. We'll be on our own for finding mechanics and parts."

Amuro appeared interested in the proceedings again. "That's not too bad. Loum is one of the few colonial heavy manufacturing centers. It seems likely we could find Anaheim or civilian facilities with usable parts and labor."

"Morgenroete might have something up here, too, or a Junk Guild group," Ed added.

"Thus far, we've left all of our mechanical troubles in your hands, Captain Ray, and haven't been disappointed," Johnny spoke up to endorse the plan, fearful that Garma might be too reactionary. "I would trust you and Lieutenant Harrelson to attend to the situation."

Amuro smirked; of course he'd need permission to take any sort of initiative now. He decided not to wait for whatever grudging support Garma might end up lending. "Of course. Ed, shall we get going?"

Edward was more than thankful for an excuse to get off the ship. "Don't have to tell me twice."

Domon spoke up, abruptly. "I'll accompany you."

Ed laughed. "What's that, samurai? Gonna play bodyguard for us?"

"Well, it would be useful not to have to carry weapons," Amuro said. "And Domon can do more damage than any conventional sidearm, anyway."

Domon merely nodded, indicating that Amuro wasn't exaggerating his destructive potential even a little. "Michelo isn't likely to just sit on the Dogos Gear while it's in dock."

Amuro's group departed, leaving behind a small core of personnel with no official tasks just yet. "We know the Frosts need the same things we do, so sending another team out for information about them would be advisable. A less... blunt approach than Lieutenant Gato and Mr. Asuka's may turn up different leads," Char said. "If Mr. Witz would be interested in accompanying me, as he seems to be the resident expert on the Frosts."

"I'm not much of one, but I'll do what I can. Those guys are up to something dirty and I won't be happy until I know what it is," Witz said.

Garma brightened at that prospect. "Of course, Char! I'm sure you can't fail to turn up something about their foul deeds. This leaves me to remain behind to see to administrative tasks..."

"... and I will assist you," Johnny said, by which he meant he would try to keep Garma's leadership from getting in Christina's way anymore than was strictly necessary.

-X-X-X-

While Dogos Gear has a massive disadvantage in terms of manpower, they were far more organized and wily. Instead of contacting Loum publicly, they stopped the Dogos Gear just out of Loum's estimated sensor range, hiding it behind some drifting debris. They sent Michelo ahead in Neros's Core Lander to find out if there were any unregistered facilities that could hold their ship. Unsurprisingly, there weren't, but then again it wasn't the ship that needed repairs. Michelo quickly found a grey-market arms merchant that had recently come into a bizarrely mis-matched shipment of Mobile Suit parts that he had no idea what to do with.

The parts were, of course, exactly what they'd need to get the banged-up military machines into top fighting shape; Michelo hadn't thought the Beyonder would let his leg-breaking squad stay incapacitated for long. He made some arrangements to have the parts and some mechanics ferried out to the Dogos Gear to do the work. His contacts would get their pay in the form of trade goods, including alcohol and narcotics, that Michelo had the foresight to stash on the Dogos Gear while they were still dicking around in that little Earth settlement waiting for White Base to show up.

Michelo also obtained a small quantity of cyanide from the same dealer, in return for a few rifles. Small in a military sense; he wouldn't be poisoning anyone's water supply with it, nor would he need it. Before Michelo had left, Flay had approached him discreetly in his hangar and requested a little supply just in case of a Clotho-related emergency.

"I think those pills he takes may build up in his system over time. He was terribly violent after he got back on the ship..." she said. "I don't know how much longer it'll be until he stops coming down and is just crazy all the time."

Michelo had the sense to be a little suspicious of her. Ordinarily she avoided him, smart enough to be afraid of him, and she wasn't old enough that Michelo would've wanted to press the issue when it came to her company. "And you're telling me about this instead of your creep boyfriend why?"

"Olba?" She scowled a little. "He doesn't care about me enough to want to risk losing another pilot... even one that might end up going crazy and breaking my neck."

"And why do I care whether or not the little freak wastes you?" Michelo asked.

The girl was smart enough to realize it was a strictly practical question. "If anything happened to me, you know Olba and Shagia would want to take over running the bridge. Do you want to trust them with the ship's cannons and missiles, on top of whatever it is they want on the moon?"

"But if I get you the poison you want, to take care of the kid," Michelo said. "You know you owe me, don't you?"

"If I'm going to owe anyone," Flay replied, "I'd rather it be the man most likely to win. You can have whatever the Beyonder's offering, and I'll be happy just to go home."

Michelo had no trouble believing that. She was an obvious spoiled princess type, and would probably make a very good moll or kept woman for somebody once she'd been around the block a few more times. For now, though, she was a more useful and far less irritating ally than the other idiots he shared the ship with, and it'd do him no harm to make sure she kept breathing. "Deal, girlie. I'll get you enough to take care of Clotho. Don't make me regret it, huh?"

He drew close, and took a firm hold of her chin to make sure she realized just how very trivial an act it would be for him to snap her neck, or bash her brains out. Fortunately, she was a smart girl and didn't need the sort of blunt convincing the Frosts required. "I know," she said, afraid but at least trying to keep some dignity. "Trust me, I know."

All the incident did was solidity Flay's determination to be rid of Michelo once and for all. She waited until Michelo came back with the mechanics, parts, and supplies, and appeared in the hangar just long enough to discreetly get her package from Michelo. From there, she knew she'd be free to do whatever she wanted with it. No one else ever went to the kitchens to prepare food, so she was free to take a mortar and pestle to the three "suicide pills" she'd been given there.

Once the gelatin and its contents were smashed into a fine white powder, she made her way to the break room nearest the hangar. Michelo had co-opted the fridge there as a place to keep his wines chilled. She found one half-empty, cork placed loosely in the opening. That was the bottle that received her payload of deadly white powder. She then placed the cork back in, put the bottle back where she found it, and escaped to the bridge to await news of Michelo Chariot's untimely death.

It wasn't too long in coming. Michelo carted the bottle to the hangar so he'd have something to drink while he watched the mechanics go about their business, just to make sure there was no obvious corner-cutting. He downed almost all of the bottle in a single swig. Seconds later, he was on the floor, twitching, foaming at the mouth. By the time any of the hired mechanics could reach him, he appeared to be stone dead, without pulse or respiration.

Shagia had also been monitoring the mechanics' work in the hangar, largely as an excuse to keep an eye out for signs of physical distress on Michelo's part. Once the other man was on the ground, he went directly to work. His first priority was to calm the mechanics, who were understandably upset by the abrupt death of the man who'd hired them. They knew Michelo was murdered, and Shagia didn't pretend to deny it, instead promising them that it was just personal business, and that they'd all be paid in full and extra if they completed their tasks. He even offered to throw in Neros Gundam as additional payment if they would do them the favor of hauling Michelo's body away and disposing of it somewhere on Loum. The mechanics were amenable to this, and the work proceeded smoothly from there while Shagia and Clotho – mostly Clotho – worked to load Michelo's hefty body onto the mechanics' shuttle.

As far as Shagia was concerned, all had gone exactly according to plan. With only three Mobile Suits to repair, the mechanics' foreman was promising to have the work finished in about eighteen hours. Then they'd load their men, tools, and barter goods into their shuttle and be en route back to Loum, while the Dogos Gear could move on to the moon. Hopefully White Base, with its larger contingent of machines to take care of, would be delayed much longer and so not able to even try to interfere. The enemy ship was unquestionably docked at Loum; Michelo had brought back word of it when he returned from the colony with the repair men and his own doom.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Loum is the main Side 4 colony during the One Year War period, and becomes Side 5 during Zeta Gundam for nebulous reasons that seem to amount to the writers forgetting the Side numbering in the production gap between First and Zeta. It is reportedly the colony that is flung at Earth during 0083's abortive Operation British, although that is something else about Loum that seems to be primarily established in post-series errata. I'm using all of the errata in this story along with some made-up details, largely because it suits my own dramatic purposes here.

Foaming at the mouth isn't a regularly reported symptom of cyanide poisoning, but given that Gundam Fighters have superhuman physiology and that Michelo was taking an incredibly large dose, it was a bit of dramatic license that felt appropriate.


	20. Chapter 20

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The mysteries at Loum deepen, while a new factor completely changes the situation aboard White Base.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"... oh, you have got to be kidding me," Christina breathed, as she looked over the sheaf of papers in her hands. It was a printout of the electronic entry and exit data that Loum's central computers gathered from every dock on the colony, noting in generic terms the registration of every vehicle as it came and went. The information it presented was dire.

"Unfortunately, it seems to be true," Char spoke. He was currently dressed in Quattro Bageena's Federation uniform, which seemed to make most of the other White Base personnel gathered in the bridge uneasy. Christina found it made it easier for her to take Char seriously, regardless of what he was calling himself that day.

"Nothing in the Dogos Gear's size class has been in here in the past twenty-four hours," Witz said. He had accompanied Char on the brutally efficient trip to Loum's main administrative center that resulted in the sheaf of documents. They didn't have to lie much to get them, given the circumstances.

"So either the Frosts decided to skip repairs, or they changed course..." Garma mused aloud.

"Not necessarily," Char said. "What they could have done-- what I would have done-- is keep the ship off-colony somewhere and have a civilian transport bring in material and men. They'd be impossible to find with sensors, thanks to Minovsky distortion..."

"... and we don't have the manpower to search them out the old-fashioned way," Johnny sighed. "So where does this leave us?"

"Sticking to the plan, I think," Char said. "How's Amuro doing with repairs?"

"He called in earlier, a group of mechanics willing to do the repairs are on their way over," Christina said. "... it's honestly a little suspicious, they apparently had all of the parts they needed already..."  
"The hand of the Beyonder, I'm sure," Johnny said. "He won't let his war game slow down because of broken toys."

"Can I assume you've called the other away teams back to ship, Lieutenant MacKenzie?" Char asked.

Christina frowned. "Not exactly. Amuro wants to scout around for extra provisions and said he'd be back later tonight. I can't get through to Gato and Shin at all, though..."

Garma was already alarmed. "Could they be in trouble?"

Johnny glanced down at his commanding officer from one of the ops chairs situated behind the captain's chair. "It's possible... but knowing those two, they're probably just being obstinate."

-X-X-X-

Gato and Shin's comms receivers were actually sitting in the pockets of their overcoats, unable to make themselves heard over the din of a thick crowd. By sheer luck, the fourth dock the two men had surveyed that day happened to be the center of a tremendous commotion.

By talking to people at the edges of the crowd, the two men had surmised this much: that a civilian shuttle had crashed into the dock's doors. Beyond that basic fact, information devolved into what sounded like rumor and speculation. The common thread in the rumors was that everyone aboard the shuttle was found dead, killed in some unusual fashion, with no sign of a culprit or whatever cargo the shuttle had originally been carrying.

Shin's strength came in handy for pushing through a crowd. Eventually he and Gato broke through the front lines of the throng, where the few colonial police on hand were trying to control the situation. The shuttle was badly damaged, the rear hangar doors torn off outright. A few men in medical smocks were struggling to get body bags out through the back of the hatch. Shin wordlessly bounded forward to help the Naturals, and get a closer view of the damaged hangar's interior.

This severely displeased one of the officers trying to control a perimeter around the crime scene. "God damn kid, get back here! You don't need to see--"

Gato could smooth a situation over, when he felt like it. He could even be unobtrusive. "He has a battlefield experience, sir, I'm sure he only intends to help the paramedics."

The cop was still riled. "-- pfeh. Bet he hasn't seen anything like this. It's got to be the end times, I swear..."

Gato couldn't really say the officer's guess was entirely wrong. "Can you tell me what happened here?"

The cop eyed Shin, who by himself was helping the paramedics get bodies out twice as quickly. This didn't seem to make him happy. "Somebody on that shuttle made short work of the crew and escaped. Looks it was one of those genetic supermen... "coordinators", they call 'em."

That caught Gato's attention. There were no Coordinators aboard the Dogos Gear, but certainly there were men of comparable ability. "What makes you say that?"

"The men on that shuttle, they weren't killed with guns or knives. Whoever did them in was strong enough to just tear them apart." The cop glowered at Gato, pointedly. "If I were you, I'd get your kid out of here."

Gato appraised the shuttle quickly. He didn't recognize the precise model, but it was easily large enough to carry a few Mobile Suits, mechanics, parts... had the Dogos Gear arranged to have its repair work done off-colony? He remembered the Delaz Fleet had used similar tricks on occasion, especially when men like him were running undercover missions. If so, why send one of their superhumans back to murder the crew and then, apparently, escape?

"All we're looking for is safe passage to Von Braun, or whatever's left of it," Gato lied. He made a point of sounding as indignant as if Shin were some sort of relative. "I see we'll be looking elsewhere."

The cop nodded. "See that you do."

Gato's emotions were settling on a sense of quiet outrage. The situation gave the impression that Dogos Gear had taken its repairs, and then left someone behind to terrorize the colony. That couldn't be right, not for a ship so drastically short on manpower... something was going on he didn't understand yet.

He could see Shin making his way back to the crowd. The boy was getting stared at, and none of the glances were friendly. Gato wordlessly followed him until they were far from the crowd at the dock.

"Your impressions?" Gato asked.

"It wasn't a coordinator. We're not that strong." Shin was terse.

"Then what do you think?" Gato asked.

"... I don't know."

"It reminds me that there's a Gundam Fighter aboard the Dogos Gear," Gato said. "One who has thus far chosen to hold back his strength."

"... let's get back to the ship," Shin said. There was a certain nervousness in his voice.

-X-X-X-

"Oh, man, this is the best!" That Ed managed to get words out clearly around his half-chewed mouthful of ground beef and bun seemed like a minor miracle to Amuro. "Those MREs on the ship can go to hell!"

The MREs had only become a meal staple after Loran's death, when no one left aboard had the time or ability to cook for the others. The thought kept Amuro from taking any particular pleasure from a chance to eat "real food". "The change of pace is nice, anyway... though I was really hoping for a chance to talk."

"'Bout what?" Ed mumbled around his fries.

"The personnel changes on board the ship..." Amuro wasn't sure how to continue.

"I don't like them, either," Domon said. The Gundam Fighter had already consumed a heroic amount of food with a sort of ruthless efficiency, leaving only a pile of containers and wrappers around his seat in the booth. He was trying to look stern behind the mess, but it didn't really work. "Getting us home doesn't seem to be priority for the Zeon anymore."

"Yeah, Garma sucks, but it's not like we've got anywhere else to go," Ed said. "I figure we just put up with 'im until this is over."

"Our situation is too dangerous for that. He's obviously a poor commander, and Char can't be trusted to care about any agenda but his own," Amuro said. "Look, we've seen evidence here that the economy's still intact. My accounts are still good here. We could leave White Base and buy our own ship."

Ed choked a little. "What the-- Amuro, come on. No pilot's got that kind of money, and nobody's gonna sell us a ship for cheap when the world's falling apart."

Amuro frowned. "I can't argue with you about ship prices. We'll probably pay a premium on anything we can get... but believe we when I say I've got access to more assets than you'd expect from a pilot," Amuro replied.

"Hey, that's right, you're some kinda engineer back home, right? What'd you do, come up with some hotshot Mobile Suit tech?" Ed asked.

"No... civilian applications." Amuro was clearly uncomfortable for a silent moment, before he made a final admission. "... I designed toys."

Domon blinked at him. "Toys...? For children?"

Amuro nodded, quite uncomfortably, as Ed began laughing.

"Well, hell, you know I'd throw in with you over those Zeon assholes," Ed said. "But we gotta do this right if we're gonna. We can't leave Christina or Witz behind, or our Mobile Suits."

Amuro nodded. "Of course not. For now we can just scout around and see what's available. We're about forty minutes away from the colony's largest docking station... I asked the mechanics about it earlier. If anyone is going to sell us anything, it'll be there."

"Do you know what kind of coincidence it would take, for there to be somebody in the middle of the apocalypse willing to sell you a warship?" Ed asked.

"The same sort of one that let us find a bunch of mechanics who already had all the spare parts we needed?" Amuro's reply was almost pointedly mild. Ed grunted in frustration, unable to argue further.

"The Beyonder's hand..." Domon's voice was heavy with righteous anger. "We must find a way to escape it."

-X-X-X-

The docking area was not so crowded as Amuro had expected, possibly due to its sheer size. It was also on the side of the colony that consistently pointed away from Earth. In the Universal Century it would have bustled with ships coming and going from other colonies, or the lunar settlements. In the Beyonder's world, it was eerily quiet.

As a result, most of the ships there were either not for sale, or were in some way unsuitable. Quite a few seemed far less than spaceworthy, and only still in dock because the owner was missing. It was a depressing disappointment, at least until they came to one of the last holding bays.

"Ugh, why aren't there more mid-range ship classes," Amuro muttered in frustration. "It's either moving cargo or moving half a fleet..."

"Someone's moving Gundams," Domon said. He pointed upward, where a crane was helping to move a machine that was secured tightly to a metal "rest bed", of the sort that was used to load Mobile Suits on trucks. It seemed like a Cosmic Era suit, stuck in the neutral greys that dominated when a machine's Phase Shift Armor was shut off.

"... aw, hell! Unit 3?!" Ed swore.

"You recognize it?" Amuro asked.

"Wish I didn't," Ed stated. "That's the Gold Frame Amatu. It's the personal Mobile Suit for House Sahaku... one of Orb's ruling families. Armed to the teeth with bleeding edge stuff."

"A personal Mobile Suit..." Amuro frowned. It seemed a little obscene for anyone to own a war machine simply for the sake of owning it.

"Would House Sahaku be here as our ally, or the Dogos Gear's," Domon said.

"Ehh... depends on which of Unit 3's pilots we got stuck with. One's a psycho... the other's pretty crafty, but at least you can reason with her."

Amuro walked over to the railing that overlooked the actual docking bay below. It appeared 'Unit 3' was being moved into some sort of very large black ship-- possibly a warship, if he didn't miss his guess. He looked around for signs of who might be the pilot, or the ship's captain, or anyone who wasn't just a dock worker. "Hm. Is she a... very tall woman? Black hair?"

Ed headed over the railing to peer down himself, and Domon followed suit. "... yeah, that's definitely Rondo Mina," Ed said. "Looks like she's got the Sahaku Izumo, too... you're not thinking of trying to cut a deal with her, are you?"

Amuro didn't exactly want to say yes. "You did say she was reasonable..."

"She's also really dangerous, Amuro," Ed said. His tone was warning.

"Is she the type who sacrifices allies?" Amuro asked.

"Well... not really, I guess, but..."

"Less dangerous than Char, then." Amuro began looking for docking bay's access stairwell.

-X-X-X-

Rondo Mina Sahaku was an extraordinary woman, as tall as a man but with perfectly female proportions. She was an advanced product of the Cosmic Era's infatuation with genetic engineering and had no problems with flaunting it, displaying a coordinator's strength openly. She didn't seem to take as dim a view of Ed as he did of her, and in fact invited them into her ship to discuss their situation.

Her ship was another marvel of Cosmic Era engineering. It was not as long as the Dogos Gear and clearly wouldn't carry as many Mobile Suits, but what appeared to be some truly fearsome weaponry studded the outside. On the inside it was far sleeker and more accommodating than White Base's outdated architecture, and it showed every sign of offering more powerful onboard computers.

They spoke in what appeared to be the equivalent of a captain's ready room, though it had clearly been set up for audiences moreso than meetings of equals. Rondo sat behind an expansive hardwood desk, bolted to the floor, listening with a neutrally pensive expression on her face. She maintained this attitude, even through the superficially ridiculous parts of the story Amuro found himself telling. It made the daunting task of explaining the Beyonder feel a little more reasonable.

When Amuro was done, Rondo Mina Sahaku leaned back in her chair and laughed. Her coldly aristocratic features couldn't help but make the gesture seem unkind, just as her black hair and apparent preference for jet-black clothing, even gloves, made her feel remote even as she sat only a few feet. "How pleasantly civilized your new friends are, Edward!"

Amuro's expression became a little plaintive, and Domon betrayed embarrassment. Ed wasn't sure what to say, put on the spot like that. "... eh?"

She calmed herself and leaned forward, hair a pool of black spilling out toward them. Though more composed, she was still smiling with amusement. "Claiming to possess so many Mobile Suits, and then you only think to try and buy your way to a new ship?"

Domon scowled. Amuro furrowed his brow as he spoke. "We're not interested in being conquerors, Miss..." He paused, not entirely sure how to address her.

"Call me Rondo," she said. Her sense of amusement became a little sweeter. "So then what exactly are you interested in, Captain Ray?"

"Just as I said, a spaceworthy ship..."

Ed's eyes narrowed a bit. He could tell Rondo had an angle. "The real question here is what you're interested in, Rondo."

"Information," she stated. "You can obviously provide the caliber of intelligence that I require, so think we shall be able to close a deal."

Amuro visibly squirmed at what felt an assumption on her part. "It really depends on what information you want..."

Rondo was completely sober in an instant, all traces of humor gone fromm her. "I want to know more about the Beyonder and the participants in his game. What you told me is consistent with certain information left aboard my ship's computers, once I found myself in this world... which is clearly not mine nor yours, Ed the Ripper."

"You're another competitor?" Domon asked.

"I believe that I was intended to be, yes," Rondo said. "But House Sahaku is not a toy for anyone's amusement, least of all some mad creature playing at being God." Her expression became dour, immediately intimidating. "Bring your Mobile Suits aboard my Izumo and we shall handily deal with this game and this so-called Beyonder."

"So you're saying we have a deal?" Amuro asked.

Rondo favored him with a smile. "It seems we do. I imagine you want to leave your 'White Base' discreetly? If so, let me suggest a rendezvous plan..."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Rondo Mina Sahaku is from the extended Gundam SEED Astray sidestory manga. Arguably one of the more obscure characters, but her Astray Gold Frame AMATU Rondo Mina Custom is by far one of the most noteworthy Cosmic Era Mobile Suits.


	21. Chapter 21

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Rondo Mina Sahaku joins the Gundam War, seemingly loyal to no one but herself, while Amuro wrestles with a difficult decision.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"So... what do you think?"

Amuro glanced at his friends in earnest as they walked away from the Izumo's dock, the beginning of the long journey back to White Base's.

Ed was the first to speak, his tone and expression joyless. "I don't like it. It's not like anyone else is gonna be able to give us a better ship, but..."

"I'm not sure we can trust her," Domon added.

Amuro nodded. Rationally, he knew his friends were probably right, but he still felt himself drawn toward the self-determination that Rondo's ship promised. "Well, there's nothing wrong with staying onboard White Base..."

"Except that you're not gonna stay, are you?" Ed asked.

"... probably not. I'd rather take my chances with Rondo than Char..."

Ed frowned. "Amuro, seriously. What's your damage with that guy?"

"It's one of those things that feels like more trouble to explain than it's really worth... it gets a little personal," Amuro said. His brows knit, expression betraying a deep disgust at whatever he was thinking about. "Could you take my word for it that Char Aznable absolutely cannot be trusted to value anyone else's life?"

"I gotta admit, Amuro, that's pretty heavy stuff... he's seemed okay enough, at least as those Zeon assholes go," Ed replied.

"I can accept your word, Amuro Ray." Domon spoke up so abruptly that it starteld the other two men. When Domon chose to go quiet, it could be easy to forget he was even present. Now, though, it was obvious Domon had merely been in deep thought.  
"You wanna let me in on why, Domon?" Ed asked.

"He's hiding something." Domon's voice was decisive. "I don't know what or why, but he keeps his heart behind a mask of lies and half-truths. No real Gundam Fighter would willingly fight alongside a man like that."

"... you can be an astute judge of character, Domon," Amuro said.

"Oh, hell, if you're both leaving then there's no way I'm gonna stay..." Ed sounded a little exasperated, but already resigned. "Yeah, let's get Christina and Witz and do this. I guess I can keep an eye on Rondo, if it comes to that..."

-X-X-X-

Rondo Mina Sahaku felt, for the most part, very pleased with her first move in the Beyonder's little game. Her satisfaction came, primarily, from knowing it was probably not the move she was supposed to make. She had received her own message of welcome from the Beyonder, and that unearthly voice had told her to await contact by a single member of her own assigned team. Ed appeared as part of a trio, and everything they told her lead her to believe that they were probably among her intended opponents.

Taking orders, even orders from some sort of space-god, was alien to Rondo's true nature. If she joined either of the established teams, she could only hope to have a share in someone else's victory. That was hardly enough for her ambition. If she would play the Beyonder's game, she would play on the only side that really mattered: her own. That would mean harvesting allies who were to her own personal taste, rather than accepting whatever the Beyonder saw fit to give her.

Rondo wasn't ordinarily given to reverie, but a quiet moment alone with a glass of the best wine she'd managed to find felt like an appropriate indulgence after so easily gaining a handful of troops for herself. That delicate moment was shattered when one of the dock workers she'd begun regarding as her own employees burst into her ready room.

"Lady Sahaku!" he shouted, desperate and out of breath. There was fear in his eyes, though, and a sense of mortal panic. "Outside, there's someone-- he's-- please, we can't handle this by ourselves!"

"So I see." She set her glass down delicately. "Will my Mobile Suit be necessary?"

"Ma'am, that's what's scary about him-- it's like he's some kind of walking Mobile Suit by himself!"

Rondo paused for a moment, thoughtfully. "Prepare it for emergency launch," she ordered. "And get me a weapon-- something automatic."

-X-X-X-

Michelo Chariot wasn't dead. Oh, Flay's poison had come close – one more pill might have really done him in – but that's why he'd only let her have the three. He had regained consciousness around the time they were loading him onto the shuttle, but wasn't up to doing much more than making sure his heart and lungs kept working.

About halfway through the shuttle's journey, he felt like getting up and stretching his legs a bit. He wasn't in a good mood at the time, and the crew of mechanics never stood much of a chance. They were enough at fault that Michelo felt satisfied when he was done with them, though.

From there, his only real option was to take Neros Gundam and escape. If he went into port with the shuttle it would make too much of a scene. Instead, he used Neros's sensors to comb the outside of the curious cylinder-shaped colony for some unobtrusive way he might sneak back in. From there he could maybe steal a ship and begin working on a way to catch up with the Dogos Gear and give everyone aboard exactly what was coming to them.

Getting in to Loum with a Mobile Suit was surprisingly easy. Suitably-sized access chutes studded the colony's exterior. Michelo got lucky and found one that had already been damaged by a debris strike, so any security sensors attached to it couldn't be operational. He kicked the rest of the hatch off of its hinges and followed the chute inside. He followed it aimlessly for a bit, until he chanced upon an exit that put him inside a scrapyard adjacent to what looked like a major space dock.

As far as Michelo was concerned, that was hitting the jackpot. He got hold of a flatbed truck from the scrapyard's owner in an exchange that left the other man discreetly dead. He strapped Neros into it and covered it with a tarp, then blended the truck into the general flow of traffic. Driving it in to the dock area was easy, and he used a leisurely drive to eyeball the various ships available. He finally spotted one that fit his needs, a black ship that wasn't quite the Dogos Gear's size, but looked like it had pretty big guns and enough cargo space to move plenty of Mobile Suits.

At first it seemed to Michelo that he'd be seizing the ship without a hitch. He simply drove into the ship's docking bay, got out of the cab, and began wrecking things. A mechanic thrown into some boxes here, a loading crane smashed up there simple stuff. It was satisfying to watch the dock workers scatter and scurry around him like the ants they were.

A burst of gunfire, the rapid chewing clip of an automatic rifle, caught Michelo's attention. Was someone going to play hero? It was coming from the nice big black warship he wanted, so maybe...

An interesting sight awaited him. The gunman was a woman, tall like a fashion model but not so uselessly skinny. He could see it in her eyes-- she wasn't afraid of him. It wasn't the false bravado of an idiot, either. Whoever she was, she had some fire in her guts.

She lowered her gun now that she had his attention, and strode down the gangplank that lead out of what was clearly her ship. "I am Rondo Mina Sahaku, Emir of Orb. Who are you, and by what right do you attack my Izumo?"

"Lady, I'm Michelo Chariot, the Gundam Fighter of Neo-Italy! An' this right here gives me the right to do whatever I want!" Michelo slapped his upper thigh with his hand. His leg pulsed briefly with energy. He kicked a crescent at the air; the force was sufficient to send a shockwave ripped forward at a nearby forklift. The cab wasn't quite sheared in half, but the metal was shorn apart so violently that the shatterproof glass exploded outward in a rain of debris.

The dock workers screamed, panicked, ran. Rondo Mina was made of sterner stuff. She held her ground, merely raising a hand to shield her eyes from any debris that might fly her way. Somehow, she was lucky enough that none did. Michelo was impressed when she looked him in the eye; most men didn't have the guts for that.

"Were you, Michelo Chariot, sent here by the Beyonder from another world?" she asked.

Her bluntness took Michelo by surprise. He paused, then grinned. "... funny. How'd you know about that?"

Rondo smiled. "I was instructed by that being to wait here for a rendezvous with a lone ally. You're obviously transporting a Mobile Suit with you..." She gestured toward the truck. "... I can't imagine who else I'm supposed to be waiting for."

"Hah! So you're my replacement for those Frost assholes?" Michelo grinned. "Lady, far as I'm concerned, I'm tradin' up. Have your mooks load up my Neros an' let's talk."

"The Frost Brothers? I've heard of them. They seem to have a talent for making enemies..." She could tell that Michelo already looked interested. Her smile grew more bemused; he wouldn't be too difficult to manipulate.

"Men, load the Mobile Suit and prepare a damages invoice. I'll be in my ready room with Mr. Chariot." She turned to return to the depths of the Izumo. Michelo loped after her, his greed momentarily satiated.

-X-X-X-

Amuro was nervous from the moment they were back aboard the ship. Rondo's plan to get their Mobile Suits peacefully off of White Base required a very strict time table. He had to keep up a nerve-wracking charade for a time, make some arrangements for their eventual departure, and make a frankly agonizing decision about which Mobile Suit to take with him. It was a relief to conduct most of his business alone, taking long walks through the ship's empty corridors.

The plan called for them to pilot their machines out, but Amuro had found himself abruptly in custody of two Mobile Suits thanks to Loran's untimely deaths. There was Amuro's own nu Gundam, built from the ground up for his use and surely at its most potent in space; and then there was the Turn-A, still largely a mystery to him despite Hachi's ongoing decryption efforts.

Amuro was torn. He knew that if he left nu Gundam behind, Char would probably try to use it, and a heavy sense of dread warned him that would lead to disaster. If he took it, Garma's reaction would likely be too violent to contain. In 0079, remote weapons were ship-destroyers first and foremost. Yet, another deep sense of dread warned him that leaving Turn-A unattended could lead to disaster, too...

"There you are. I've been looking for you..." The voice was an unwelcome intrusion; it was Char. He was back in old-fashioned Zeon colors again, as if his wardrobe needed to shift along with his loyalties.

Amuro felt tension twist his stomach into an iron knot. Rationally he knew that this Char, the man of UC 0087, had probably not even conceived of his future crimes against the Earth... yet it would still be expedient to strike him down here, to simply shoot him through the chest, and so prevent untold suffering in the future.

"Amuro? Are you alright?" Char spoke again.

It occurred to Amuro that he had gotten so absorbed in his own train of thought that he'd forgotten to speak. It was difficult for him. "... well enough. What's the trouble?"

"There's no trouble... you worry too much." Char laughed. It was probably a mannerism intended to set people at ease.

It made Amuro think about punching him. "Then excuse me, there are some other things I need to attend to..." He tries to pass Char by in the hallway.  
The other man grabbed him by the shoulder as he tried to slip by. He sounded more serious now. "Amuro, please. You know we need to talk."

Amuro's ability to suppress his temper was already strained, but Char had crossed a line. This time he did throw a punch. Char was hit square on the cheekbone. His grip on Amuro's shoulder reflexively weakened, and his back hit the wall.

"There is nothing to say!" Amuro was shouting so hard he was nearly screaming. A completely unbridled fury, an overwhelming hatred was in his eyes.

Char felt a twinge of pressure. He was momentarily shocked. "... Amuro, what happened?"

Amuro was ashamed himself, though unsure of exactly why. His emotions were surging out of control; he felt uncomfortably like a child, but couldn't stop himself from another outburst. "I should kill you... if there is anyone in the universe who deserves to die, it's you!" His hands were balled into fists so tight, the knuckles ached.

"Char rose to his feet, lowing his arm from his aching face. His voice was stern, his demeanor more collected. "Amuro, tell me what happened."

"I told you, there is nothing to say!"

"You're being irrational." There was reprimand in Char's tone. His natural talent for leadership bubbled to the surface. "You weren't like this in UC 0087... and I know you're from my future. Tell me, what happened? If I know what it is, I can prevent it."

Amuro was speechless. He had forgotten how different, how much more rational the Char of UC 0087 had been. His mind went blank for a moment-- was Char's charisma affecting him? Char was a Newtype of the sort who could be unnaturally magnetic in personality.

Char pressed his advantage. "Tell me what I did wrong, Amuro... help me avoid that mistake!"

It wasn't what Amuro wanted to hear. In fact, it enraged him anew. "Your mistake... what is always your mistake, Char?! You used us! Me, Kamille, Hayato, everyone!" Grief welled up in his voice as he screamed.

"What you mean is... we defeated the Titans, but the cost was too high..." Char ventured, tentative. He couldn't make sense of Amuro's accusations otherwise.

"I wish I could say that was true..." Amuro's heart was aching, his head pounding. It was the suffocating feeling of his fight-or-flight instincts kicking in. If he didn't get away soon, he was certain he would lose control and try to execute Char for crimes as yet uncommitted.

Char merely felt frustration in the face of Amuro's attitude, which was more inscrutable than ever to him. "Then what do you mean? Amuro, I can't change anything-- I can't save anyone unless you tell me what really happened."

"Nothing I tell you is going to matter. Your heart-- no, your spirit is sick. You can't change anything and you'll never save anyone. Anyone who follows you is a fool." Amuro's voice took on an unearthly quality as he spoke, one Char had heard before but never from him.

Char had known from the start that Amuro could possibly become a powerful Newtype one day, and he expected this older, embittered man of the future to be greater than the naïve idealist who founded Karaba. Char still never would have thought it within the ability of any Amuro Ray, in any universe, to pronounce his doom with a seer's certainty.

"Things are different now--"

"They aren't." Amuro was firm. "You were wounded a long time ago, Char, and Scirocco has made it worse. You threw away any power you had to build a better future when you killed him in the name of petty revenge!"

Char finally lost his temper, though in the manner of an adult angry with a precocious child. "Then what would you have me do, Amuro?! Surrender? Spend the rest of the Beyonder's war hiding?!"

Amuro was beginning to feel himself again, if a very worn and miserable version of himself. "I'm not responsible for your actions, Char. What you do isn't any of my concern. But if you really want to change anything, or save anyone... stay away Mobile Suits with on-board Newtype systems. You won't be able to handle it."

"Amuro, what..." Char felt himself confused again, almost too confused to even care about sorting through his rival's madman ravings.

"I have nothing else to say to you, Char." Amuro began walking down the corridor again, leaving the other man behind.

This time Char was willing to let him go. Initially he had wanted only to ensure that he and Amuro fought on the same side. Now, he didn't care what Amuro did, and might even relish the chance to fight him again.

Char liked to believe he had never truly lost faith in his father's predictions of a future utopia ushered in by Newtype potential, but Amuro Ray... no man so bitter, so petty and spiteful, could possibly be anything but a failed Newtype. Char felt he had entirely wasted his time even trying to cultivate him as an ally.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-


	22. Chapter 22

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The White Base alliance is finally sundered, and both factions can only push forward to hope of victory.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"Nope. Not doin' it." Witz leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and kicked his boots up on the table. Every gesture smacked of finality.

"Aw, Witz, come on!" Ed leaned forward from the table's other side, pleading.

"Witz, if we leave and you remain on the ship alone..." Amuro sounded worried. For the first time during the secret meeting of the ship's anti-Zeon (well, anti-Garma) faction, it seemed his conviction was wavering.

"You forget, I'm a Vulture. I ain't loyal to anything but me, and right now the only thing I want is to break the Frost Brothers in half," Witz said. "I don't blame you guys for wanting off the ship, but any fight we have with the Frosts, you'll probably show up at least an hour or two late. That's not for me, I want on the front lines."

Amuro was speechless, humbled by what he could only perceive as Witz's tremendous courage. Being shot down by the Messala less than a week ago seemed not to have phased him-- even as the scars from the crash still healed on the side of his forehead.

"With all due respect, Captain... if I didn't consider you my commanding officer, I wouldn't be going either," Christina said. She touched Amuro very lightly on the shoulder as she spoke, sympathizing with his situation despite some of the annoyance she felt with him at the moment.

She, too, would feel better if Witz went with them, and she also knew that splitting their forces was a dangerous gamble with another battle against the Dogos Gear looming. She still couldn't pretend that the stress of trying to run the bridge with Garma constantly looking over her shoulder was anything but unbearable. Any other ship, at the moment, seemed like a more hospitable environment.

Witz sat up and appeared to be fumbling at being reassuring. "Look, things'll work out better this way. I'll let the others know you aren't planning to shoot them down or kill 'em all or anything, you just wanted a second ship."

"Yeah, I hope you're right..." Ed grumbled. "If those Spacenuts--"

"Spacenoids," Amuro corrected him, absently.

"-- yeah, whatever, if those assholes mess with you after we're gone, they'll regret it."

"Witz, if you're staying behind anyway, would you set up our launch sequences for us?" Christina asked. "It's not difficult. If anyone asks why you're doing it..."

"Yeah, yeah, make somethin' up. I got it, no problem." Witz waved his hands, as if the responsibility was nothing.

Domon had spent the conversation leaning silently against a back wall during the conversation, but now stood and spoke. "We need to leave now, if we're going to do it."

"You're right, of course. Let's get going. Everyone at the port hangar in thirty minutes." Amuro felt distracted. Doubts were already beginning to nag at him.

-X-X-X-

White Base's bridge was tranquil. Garma, Johnny, and Char sat in companionable silence, absorbed in their own tasks. The ship had left the dock at Loum, the colony disappearing slowly in a view that would have been spectacular had anyone been watching the forward screen.

Johnny was researching the local star charts, Char was trying to access public network files about psycommu innovations post-dating UC 0087, and Garma was working on a memoir he could take home to his family. Witz was the only one really working at the bridge, handling the rather dull comms and ops station that Christina usually watched.

The only sign that something was amiss came about ten minutes later, when Char looked up from his work, brows furrowed. "Movement..." he murmured.

"Char?" Garma asked.

Char didn't answer him directly. "Mr. Sou, do sensors show anything in proximity to us?" His head tilted toward Witz, who had suddenly begun slouching.

"Uh... four Mobile Suits, movin' on a trajectory toward Loum." Witz was guarded as he made his report.

Johnny immediately turned away from his work, alarmed. "-- four?! Where did they come from..."

"I... uh... h-hey, how 'bout that, we've got a call coming in from the hangar..."

Char's expression was beginning to become very cold and displeased as he eyed Witz. "Patch it through, Mr. Sou."

"Lord Garma!" It was Gato, sounding truly furious. "We've been betrayed! The Earthnoid Mobile Suits are gone!"

The Zeon in the bridge all exclaimed at the same time.

"What?!"

"Dammit, Amuro!"

"Mr. Gato, status report!"

"The NT-1 Alex, Sword Calamity, Shining, and the Turn-A, all gone," Gato said. "I don't know how long they've been gone-- shall I pursue?"

"No!" Witz managed to shout before Garma could speak. "There's no point, they're not gonna hurt anything. Just let 'em go."

Johnny said, "I take it you know considerably more about the situation than we do, Mr. Sou?"

"You traitor!" Garma pounded his fist on the arm of the captain's chair as he shouted.

Witz remained cool, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, they asked me about goin' with 'em and I said I didn't want to. You guys'll reach the Frost Brothers first and what I want is to throw down with those assholes."

"What is Amuro's intention?" Char asked. "Is there a ship waiting for him?"

"Yeah. He's gonna follow us to wherever and help with the Frosts..."

"That's beyond ridiculous!" Garma exclaimed. "You expect us to believe the White Devil lead a mutiny aboard my ship, just so he could pursue our exact goals?"

"... actually, Lord Garma," Johnny interrupted quietly, deferentially. "Based on my reading of Captain Ray's character during my time on this ship, I find it plausible."

"What?" Garma was incredulous. "Major Ridden, I'm afraid I have to ask you to explain yourself."

"Captain Ray appears to suffer from a severe inability to trust others," Johnny said. "It's not hard for me to believe he would devise a scheme that he felt was for the greater good, and then expect us to work actively against his ability to execute it."

"You seriously believe the White Devil means no harm to this ship?" Garma struggled to make himself believe that.

"I seriously believe Captain Ray means no harm to this ship," Johnny said. "He is only guilty of being a poor soldier, as are those who followed him. Frankly, our White Base may perform better as a unit without them, though the loss of manpower is regrettable."

Garma was still paralyzed by disbelief. "Major Ridden, your assessment of this situation is... extraordinary..."

"He's right, Garma," Char said. "Surprisingly so. It's probably in our best interests to move with all speed toward the Frosts' probable destination."

"I won't argue with the both of you, though I can't say I feel at ease about this..." Garma leaned forward to address comms channel open to the hangar. "Lieutenant Gato, do not pursue. Save your strength for confronting the Dogos Gear."

Gato sounded highly dissatisfied, but his response was otherwise proper. "... as you say, Lord Garma. Gato out."

Witz exhaled. The danger seemed past; he could feel the tension draining out of his body, for now. He didn't dare say anything, but went quietly back to his work.

Garma leaned back in his chair, newly tense and fidgety. "Char, Major Ridden... I hope I've done the right thing."

"I've advised you honesty and to the best of my ability, Lord Garma. That is all I can do," Johnny said. "Though, I wonder..."

"Eh?" Garma asked.

"I've wondered how a man like Captain Ray came into his rank... how a man gets promoted so far when he can lacks faith in the basics of military command structure." His eyes flicked toward Char, coolly. "I've been wondering if you might happen to know something that, Lieutenant. You appear to have something of a history with Captain Ray."

Char eyed Johnny right back. His response was distant. "That's true enough... but I can't say I have any insights to offer you. I've never really understood what makes the man tick, and I don't expect I ever will."

-X-X-X-

One by one, the four rebel Mobile Suits began entering the hangar of Rondo Mina Sahaku's Izumo. Amuro, Christina, and Edward left their machines right away, still clad in their normal suits. Domon seemed to be taking a little longer, for whatever reason.

The Izumo's hangar was spacious, and there appeared to be plenty of room for storing their suits securely. One by one, the travelers' helmets came off.

"Man, I still can't believe we scored an Izumo class," Ed said. He took a few steps forward, looking around at the hangar bays. "This is some serious firepower, right here."

Rondo's voice echoed from the area in front of them. "Orb is always prepared." Her expression quirked upward in displeasure as she saw Christina-- she had expected all of her new pilots to be men.

Christina paid Rondo no particular heed, instead far more interested in discussing the Izumo itself. "Is everything from the Cosmic Era always so... so... I don't know, shiny?"

"Some aspects of their technology base are a lot more elegant than ours." Amuro sounded somehow dismayed.

Rondo approached Christina. A close observer might have found her method cautious. "You've never seen laminated armor before? Poor thing, what a world you must come from."

"It's a powerful anti-beam armor. Too expensive to put on anything that's not a flagship, though..." Ed sounded wistful. He paid undue attention to Rondo's movements as he spoke, his mistrust more obvious than he would have liked.

"It gleans like a blade." Domon approached from Shining Gundam, which knelt in the background. He was tugging on one of his gloves, as if just putting it on again, and was otherwise dressed in normal clothing. Given the circumstances, it couldn't strike anyone as odd for too long.

Rondo smiled, quite pleased by Domon's turn of phrase. "If so, my Izumo is a sword that menaces only Orb's enemies."

"Hah! I wasn't expecting you here, King of Hearts..."

The voice was distant, from the shoulder of a Mobile Suit that was in storage, swathed in deep shadow. The speaker leaped forward, his body descending to the hangar's metal floor like jungle cat's. This predator landed on two feet, though, mere feet from the assembled pilots.

"Michelo Chariot!" Domon's exclamation made the name a curse. His hands balled into fists, and he charged forward a few steps. For a moment it seemed that a fight between the two Gundam Fighters might erupt then and there.

Rondo's voice coolly interrupted the escalating violence. "Michelo, I was going to give you a proper introduction."

Amuro spoke in immediate alarm. "Rondo, what's the meaning of this?! Michelo Chariot is..."

Michelo laughed. "From the other side? You're quick as they say, soldier boy."

"Michelo Chariot, what are you planning?!" Domon demanded. His voice rose to incredible volume, more a lion's roar than a shout.

"Planning? I'm planning to go to the moon and kick someone's head off." Michelo shoved his hands in his pockets. "It's the same guys you're going after, or so I heard. The way I see it, for now, that puts us all on the same side."

Ed's eyes widened. "On the moon? Holy shit, you're turning on the Frosts?!"

"The Frosts already turned on me." There was something cold and deadly in Michelo's voice.

"... that's what the Frosts were really doing when they stopped at Loum, isn't it?" Christina asked. "Getting rid of you."

Michelo flicked a glance Christina's way. "Smart and cute, huh?" He grinned. "Yeah, that's how it went down. So the way I see it, you guys get me there, I break the Frosts into pieces, and your team is down a couple enemies. We all win, right?"

"I know what kind of a coward you are, Michelo Chariot!" Domon thundered. "Why do you think we're going to trust you enough to come with us?"

Michelo's eyes narrowed. "How about "I decided to come out and talk to an ass like you instead of sneaking on board, killing you in your sleep, and breaking legs until I had a skeleton crew that would take me where I wanted to go"? I mean, I could've done that too, but here and now what I want is the Frosts' brains spread across the walls. If your gang is busy picking 'em off too, King of Hearts, it's easier for all of us."

Domon's expression became a highly uncharacteristic sneer. "Heh. You would say that. You already proved to me that you don't have the skill for honorable combat."

Something about the dig made Michelo livid. "You want it right now, Japan? With all your civilian friends standing around?!"

"I've beaten you once already, Neo-Italy and I won't endanger these people," Domon showed a bit more of the samurai stoicism that usually characterized him. "If you want to waste your time playing the Beyonder's game, be my guest, but I'm going to take my battle to the Beyonder himself and then return to the Gundam Fight!"

Rondo scowled at the escalating tensions. "... I believe I have made it clear to you, Mr. Chariot, and I shall make it clear to the others. For now, I consider all of my allies under the sovereign protection of Orb," Rondo said. "I should take it as a highly personal insult if anything untoward were to happen aboard my ship, and there would be serious repercussions."

"Yeah, yeah." Michelo didn't even look at Rondo as she spoke. "You heard her. What you and I have can wait for the ring, King of Hearts... if I ever go back, anyway."

"The Frosts are dangerous. We're not in a position to refuse help, regardless of the source," Amuro said. He spoke uneasily, and was even less certain when he saw Christian and Edward staring at him incredulously.

"I've been meaning to ask... what do the Frosts want on the moon, anyway? Are they Earth Alliance?" Rondo asked.

"Not ours," Ed said. "And I dunno. Maybe they think there's some big base waitin' for them up there, if there's nothin' like GENESIS on their world."

"If we are planning on fighting this "Beyonder", then what the Frosts are pursuing may be a weapon we could use ourselves," Rondo said.

"What, a super weapon on the moon?" Ed's tone was skeptical.

This turn in the conversation was doing nothing for Amuro's already-taut nerves. "We don't have the resources to think about things like that... still, if the Frosts are looking for some sort of super-weapon, they pose an enormous threat.

"What about the guys on White Base? The Zeon and that coordinator kid? You think they'd use a genocide weapon?" Ed asked.

"Genocide!" Rondo laughed. "Maybe if that coordinator you left behind was a Zala."

"I'd like to think the people on White Base wouldn't, but the Zeon have dropped colonies on our Earth in the past," Christina said.

"Yeah, those Zeon guys are scary. Shin's an okay kid, he's definitely not a Zala loyalist," Edward said.

"The Zeon would use genocide weapons without a second thought. I'm sure the Frosts are the same. We don't have any time to lose, either way," Amuro said. His brows were knit in thought, his tone final.

"Then now is the time to move, with all possible speed," Rondo said.

Ed grinned at the prospect of action. "It's been a while since I've battled in space... hope I'm not too rusty."

Christina glanced downward, worry in her eyes. "Space where we don't know what is and isn't there... but we do know the Beyonder's dropped at least one colony full of innocent people into the middle of the field."

Rondo smiled back at Christina. The attempt at warmth didn't suit her face, and failed to mask her condescension. "I prefer to think of such a battlefield as merely an interesting challenge."

"Nothing like an interesting challenge, huh, Neo-Japan?" Michelo abruptly kicked something from the hangar's floor upward at Domon. It was a small wrench one of the mechanics had dropped before the Izumo had launched, though once it was airborne it was no more than a high-speed grey blur. The velocity was tremendous, enough to exert a tiny bit of pressure upon Amuro's Newtype senses.

Domon moved too swiftly for the eye to follow. Something bright flashed for a moment in front of him. Two halves the flying wrench skittered to the ground on either side of Domon, but the man himself was untouched. It seemed Domon had drawn the sword from the scabbard on his back and cut the projectile down in mid-air. The brightness seemed to be a trick of the light-- when the swing was done, the sword in his hands appeared old and rusted, though Domon wielded it with full conviction.

"... they're going to be like this the entire time, aren't they," Amuro murmured.

Ed clapped him on the shoulder. "Just remember, man... this was all your idea."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-


	23. Chapter 23

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base closes on the Dogos Gear, and Garma's forces prepare for war.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Shin dozed, even though he sat upright in a chair that no one would venture to describe as "comfortable." It was the easiest way to get sleep without leaving sick bay.

He sat next to the bed where Stellar lay in a state of unconsciousness that was not quite sleep, but at the moment was at least not fitful or wracked with pain. Stellar seemed to spend less and less time conscious with each passing day, and it was getting harder to get her to eat or drink. Shin was certain Stellar was dying was before his eyes, and until he could get her back to the life-support technology waiting for her aboard the Dogos Gear, there was nothing he could do about it.

When Shin was awake, the state of Stellar's health consumed his thoughts. That she could die simply from lack of medical equipment, after Loran and Lowe gave their cheerful, stupid lives to save her... Shin would never forgive himself for letting them die as it was, but if he could not even make their sacrifices count by saving Stellar, he would never forgive the universe.

In fact, when Gato had come down much earlier in the day – yesterday? - to tell him that the "Earthnoids" had departed the ship, Shin could not help but be a bit relieved. They all struck him as sharing something of Loran and Lowe's cheerful and stupid qualities. Even though he wouldn't deign to speak with them and on most days didn't really like any of them, it would still crack his heart in half to see any of them die on the field, committing some act of futile bravery.

A hand shook Shin's shoulder. He resisted awakening at first, but the shaking was persistent. His eyes snapped open.

He saw Gato standing over him. The instinct to obedience before a superior officer, drilled into him over years of study at ZAFT's academies, took over. Shin snapped upright in his seat and saluted, if clumsily. "S-sir."

Gato returned the salute, as if nothing was amiss. "Shin. We're six hours away from beginning combat operations against the Dogos Gear. You'll need to sortie, and I insist you get some proper rest before then."

Shin mumbled in protest at the thought. "Stellar..."

"... cannot recover until we seize control of the Dogos Gear. In light of the Earthnoid betrayal, it will be absolutely essential that you sortie in top fighting condition if we are to achieve our goals," Gato said.

"Idiots," Shin grumbled. He swayed in his seat a little, not quite ready to get to his feet.

"The same could be said of a pilot who will not rest as ordered before a crucial battle." Gato's voice was a bit fiercer now.

Shin couldn't find it in himself to disobey orders any longer. He rose to his feet, a little clumsily, and started for the door. "Yes, sir..."

Gato eased himself into the seat Shin had vacated. "No more than four hours. We'll need you to set up the Silhouettes."

Shin glanced back at Gato from the doorway. It hadn't occurred to him that someone else might be willing to take his place for awhile. The gesture was touching. "Hey, Lieutenant. Um..."

Gato didn't intend to let Shin embarrass himself by saying whatever was on his mind. Instead, Gato interrupted him. "A soldier's first duty is to his comrades, above all else. That said, I am not a heartless man, and I will not allow a woman in need to be abandoned."

"... thanks." It was all Shin could manage before he realized he needed to get moving, and fast. A coordinator could push himself to go without sleep for much longer than a Natural, but eventually the lack of rest would catch up to him. It was suddenly occurring to Shin that he had no idea how long it had been since he'd slept in a horizontal position.

-X-X-X-

"Captain Aznable, with all due respect, I am not convinced that this is a wise course of action." Johnny Ridden stood at the feet of Amuro Ray's monstrous nu Gundam, looking up at the cockpit.

Char sat within, remotely guiding the hangar's robotic systems through the process of mounting the machine's funnel rack onto its backpack. "Major Ridden, with all due respect, this is the only reasonable course of action. I'm positive I can have this Gundam's psycommu systems back online in a few hours."

"While I respect that bits are an ideal weapon in an action against an enemy carrier, we have no way of knowing how the Frosts will react to them, Johnny said. "Your current plan could force you into a situation where you're assaulting the Dogos ear single-handed."

"Major Ridden, I have to sortie in something and the nu Gundam is the only reasonable option," Char replied. "If I'm going to sortie in it anyway, it's to our tactical advantage to try and use its full capabilities. I'm sorry, but I cannot find your objections reasonable, and I doubt Lord Garma would, either."

Johnny gritted his teeth. "I am sure Lord Garma would be willing to let you use his Zaku, Captain."

Char couldn't keep himself from chuckling at the suggestion. "A Zaku? When a machine from fourteen years in the future is available? Major Ridden, don't be ridiculous."

Johnny was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he did not like Char Aznable even slightly as a human being. It was a struggle just to pay him the respects due his rank. "Captain Char, I intend to sortie in my Zaku II. It is a proven and reliable machine, and more than capable of dealing with any foe when placed in the hands of a skillful pilot."

"A reasonable opinion to hold in UC 0079. I put a Zaku to good use during the One Year War myself." Char condescended to Johnny with magnificent smugness. "But 0079 was eight years ago for me, Major Ridden, and the Zaku II is practically an antique. I'm sure I couldn't use it as well as you if I tried. Nu Gundam, however, is much closer to the 0087 prototypes I'm used to dealing with."

"I see. Then I wish you luck, Captain, and I will support your endeavor as best I can." His tone was as even and neutral as it had been throughout the conversation, but privately, Johnny felt thoroughly disgusted by Char's arrogance. It was difficult to believe that such a man was favored by Lady Kycilia.

"I appreciate your support, Major Ridden," Char said. "Still, I hope you'll forgive me for saying that I hope your support isn't required. If my strategy works out as intended, we'll take the Dogos Gear without anyone else having to lift a finger."

-X-X-X-

#I hate to interrupt you, but we're very close to the moon now.#

Olba's eyes opened as his brother's thoughts jolted him awake. He sat up in his bunk and rubbed his eyes. #Brother, I'm sorry...#

#Don't be. We've plenty of time to make our preparations, and you had plenty of time to enjoy yourself.#

"Olba...?" Flay's voice drifted up to him. Her eyes were still drowsy as she raised her head from the pillow, her hair an unruly mass after the night's exertions.

He tucked the covers back around her shoulder, smiling down at her fondly. "I need to go help Brother with a few things. You can sleep awhile longer before we'll need you."

"We're at the moon now?"

"Close enough to begin checking for signs of what we're looking for. Nothing to worry yourself about."

Flay's eyes slowly drooped shut. She was a heavy sleeper by nature and even the promise of life-or-death battle didn't quite seem important at the moment. She didn't fall back asleep immediately, though.

"Olba," she asked, "you'll remember your promise, won't you?"

"My promise?" Olba didn't remember it right away, not until his mind drifted back to earlier in the evening. Something he'd said when it seemed that Flay might be willing if she heard just the right things. "Of course I remember, silly. I said I'd protect you, didn't I?"

It was worth saying it just to see the little smile that crept across Flay's face. Her voice became sleepier. "You promised. Don't forget."

Her insistence struck Olba as ridiculous – they'd all live or die depending on what they found on the moon's surface - but he was feeling indulgent of womanly foolishness at the moment. "How could I forget?" He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. "Sleep tight."

Shagia's thoughts didn't interrupt Olba again until he was well out of his room and heading down one of Dogos Gear's many boxy hallways. #You're manipulating her.#

#No more than she wants to be. I'm doing her a favor, really! She certainly feels much better now.# Olba's thoughts were suffused with the pride of conquest.

Shagia's response was something Olba had learned, long ago, was the mental equivalent of indulgent laughter.

-X-X-X-

Hours passed, swiftly. On board the White Base, Shin had awakened and attacked the problem of preparing Impulse for launch with clarity and focus. Stellar rested alone, though comms channels were monitoring her room for sounds of distress or activity. The system reminded Johnny of what might be used to monitor a baby. He felt somehow cruel for framing the situation in those terms.

Witz had left for the hangar some time ago, to ready his refurbished Airmaster for launch. Char was also there, calibrating nu Gundam's psychoframe. This left the bridge to the Zeon officers, though Johnny knew he should be getting down to the hangar to prep his Zaku soon. He found it very difficult to leave Garma alone on the ship, even if that was an inevitable burden of his desire to assume command.

It was unexpected when Gato stepped into the room. He seemed energized by the prospect of combat operations in the near future. "Commander Ridden, Lord Garma," he said. "I was hoping to speak with the two of you before I prepare to sortie."

"Of course, Lieutenant," Garma replied. "What is it?"

"I've come to seek your permission to equip the GP-02 with a particular armament in the coming battle," Gato said.

"Permission?" Johnny asked. "Lieutenant Gato, in our position, it seems best to use anything and everything the Beyonder has seen fit to provide us."

"You don't understand. This weapon... it is not a Zeon weapon. It is not in any way honorable," Gato said. "I concealed its presence aboard ship while we were sharing it with the Feds, for security reasons."

Garma's brows furrowed. "Lieutenant, I'll excuse your behavior given the circumstances, but there is nothing a Zeon soldier should conceal from his commanders. What are you talking about?"

"You must understand, my GP-02 is a commandeered Federal prototype," Gato began. "The mission I was pursuing at the time of the Beyonder's interference was to seize control of it to ensure the future glory and safety of Zeon. The GP-02 was designed to be a delivery vector for nuclear warheads that could be used to wipe out surviving Zeon forces and dissenting colonies. In his perversion, the Beyonder saw fit to place its nuclear arsenal aboard this very ship."

Garma had gone pale, speechless. Johnny's reaction was less overt, but it was clear that on some level he was experiencing the same terror of nuclear holocaust that gripped every born Spacenoid.

"... are you telling me, for this entire time, this ship has been carrying a nuclear Gundam?" Johnny asked.

"The machine itself is not nuclear, sir," Gato responded. "The warhead is mounted on a bazooka round and can't be activated unless the bazooka is mounted on the GP-02 itself. You've been in no danger."

"You're saying you want to use that-- that thing against the Frost Brothers?" Garma asked.

"Only if it is necessary, sir. Should Captain Char's gambit fail or our forces prove unable to best the Frosts easily, it would give us another way of decisively ending the battle," Gato said. "Simply allowing it on the battlefield poses no threat of accidental detonation. The warhead is harmless until I choose to activate it."

"Why did you wait so long to tell us, Gato?" Johnny asked. "If it was simply distrusting the Earth Federation forces that were previously in our company, you still could have spoken earlier."

"While we know Witz Sou to be a stout-hearted ally, he is still a mercenary and his motives cannot be wholly trusted. While Shin Asuka is a fine young soldier, I have reason to believe his reaction to this knowledge would be regrettably immature. While I do not doubt that Captain Char is a good man of Zeon..."

Johnny grew interested as Gato seemed ready to criticize Char. "... you don't trust him, either?"

"... that is not exactly true. I should say that I do not entirely trust his faith in the superiority of Newtype ability. Forgive me my insolence, gentlemen, I am aware that in your era, Zeon's Lady Kycilia is still investing in Newtypes as a cornerstone of our future." Gato's head hung somewhat as he spoke. "But I am from that future and the Newtypes could not save us. I have no faith in the idea that a single Newtype weapon will end the Beyonder's war, even in the Red Comet's hands."

Johnny had not expected this unusual outpouring of reflection from Gato, ordinarily a stiff and formal man. He was moved. He could see how hard it was for Gato to find any fault with the deeds of Zeon the country, so great was his belief in the righteousness of Zeon the ideal.

A world where Zeon lost the One Year War must be hell to a man of Gato's convictions. Johnny wondered-- not for the first time, but perhaps now with more urgency-- if he and Lord Garma would be able to spare Gato his personal suffering somehow, perhaps using their knowledge to change the War's outcome after the Beyonder's war was ended.

Garma's emotions were more overt. Any thought that Gato might be insulting his dear friend Char fled his mind. His voice was soft. "... you do not need to apologize for yourself, Lieutenant Gato. You have acted with wisdom at every turn. You have my permission to take the GP-02's nuclear bazooka onto the battlefield. I will trust your discretion when it comes to how and when the weapon should be used."

Gato seemed relieved. "Sir. Thank you. I shall begin my launch preparations, then."

He saluted, then turned to exit the bridge.

Garma stared at the door after he left. "What a remarkable man. Upon my return, I am giving him my highest commendation to brother Dozul. He should be a Captain at least."

Johnny smiled indulgently at Garma's enthusiasm. His time in the field seemed to be maturing him admirably. Perhaps he should command Garma to Lady Kycilia upon his return, too. "While I am sure Lieutenant Gato would be flattered, I imagine he's the sort that would detest being removed from the fray. He wouldn't stand for high rank, except in a world peaceful enough not to need him."

"... do you think we could do that, Commander Ridden?" Garma asked. "I've been thinking-- between what we now know of what is going to happen, and the prize the Beyonder has promised--"

"-- I've been considering it myself, Lord Garma," Johnny said. Yes, command had to be making Garma grow up a bit if he was thinking this far ahead. "I think we have no choice but to make such an attempt, using every method at our disposal. We cannot permit the death of Zeon."

-X-X-X-

Since Gato and Shin get along well, I imagine Shin has had time to tell Gato about Bloody Valentine. I think it would be hard for anyone from Cosmic Era to take the nuclear bazooka in stride after that...


	24. Chapter 24

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: White Base and the Dogos Gear finally clash, providing the opportunity for an old score to be settled.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Flay was surprised to find Shagia and Olba present, dressed in their flight suits, as she entered the bridge. It gave the alarming impression the ship was going to be under attack soon.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Olba glanced back toward her and smiled. "Ah, there you are. We were just getting ready to call you. This is much better."

"We're moving into geosynchronous orbit around the moon, Miss Allster. We've found what we hoped for," Shagia said.

"Can you put it on the main screen?" Flay asked. She was curious to see the weapon that the Frosts were staking so much on.

Shagia patched it through. "It's beneath us now."

Flay could only understand the image as that of a military base, though it wasn't like a Cosmic Era base. It was dominated in its center by a massive white dome. The buildings seemed deserted and there wasn't any visible garrison of Mobile Suits or Armors.

She frowned a little. "Is what we want inside?"

"No, no," Olba laughed. "It's DOME. The building powers an all-powerful weapon in our Mobile Suits."

"We won't be able to remain on the bridge much longer, Miss Allster, so you'll be setting up the initial contact," Shagia. "I've begun a query to DOME to see if it is online. If you get an affirmative response, patch it through to Virsago. From there our Mobile Suits will handle the rest."

"That's easy," Flay said. "There's something else I can do, right?"

"Is there, Brother?" Olba asked.

"Hmm. The Dogos Gear has weapons," Shagia said. "We can't afford to let them go to waste... but be very careful with any firing you do once the Mobile Suits deploy. Just try to keep White Base's units from boarding you, don't fire into a pitched battle."

"I think the automation takes care of that... it shouldn't be hard. I'll do whatever I can," Flay said. "Anyway, Clotho's already in his Mobile Suit and I told him not to take his pill until after you say it's time to fight."

"Duly noted," Shagia said. "Then I shall leave the ship in your capable hands for now, Miss Allster. If White Base contacts you, be sure to patch the call through to our Mobile Suits."

"Yes, sir."

Shagia favored her with a smile, a gesture rarely lavished on anyone but his brother. It made Flay feel gratifyingly important, though not so much as when Olba stopped to kiss her before he left the bridge. That reminded her that, all appearances to the contrary, she was not really alone.

-X-X-X-

DOME was taking its time in replying to the Dogos Gear's attempts to ping it. There was clearly something down there being contacted, but perhaps due to data or the vast difference in the two techbases involved, the data was slow in coming back. The connection from DOME was still resolving when the Dogos Gear was hailed by White Base. Flay's face creased with a frown as she patched the signals through to the deployed mobile suits.

The forward screen filled with the face of Garma Zabi, framed by White Base's antiquated bridge. He was wearing a normal suit, the extra bulk of it making him look more ridiculous than usual. "Frosts, Miss Allistar, we have called to discuss the terms of your surrender to the Principality of Zeon."

Garma's screen was a mosaic, showing the four faces of the enemy: stubborn Flay, sneering Olba, haughty Shagia, and diffident Clotho. It was Shagia who gave the response, even though Flay had the bridge. "Very well. State your terms."

"The terms are quite simple. You will surrender your ship and all your mobile suits to our command and cease all hostilities. There will be no debate. If your mobile suits take any hostile actions, then we will deploy remote weaponry against the Dogos Gear. Rest assured, your will be destroyed long before you can mount any counter-attack." There was something truly dire in his voice, something wholly unlike the Garma they knew before the first battle on Earth.

Another signal, this one from a mobile suit. It was deployed well ahead of the White Base, easily dozens of kilometers. When Flay patched it through, the forward screen added a transmission from the man she had known as Quattro Bageena. He was in an unfamiliar Mobile Suit's cockpit, his sunglasses gone. His eyes were cold and hard, wholly unlike her father's.

"As I am unsure that you are from worlds where remote weapons exist, I am going to explain to you the full capabilities of bits," he spoke. In his mind, he was Char now, the ruthless commander.

Shagia interrupted. "We are quite aware of the destructive potential of G-Bits. Despite your gracious offer, I fear we cannot accept White Base's terms of surrender. We will, of course, be forced to retaliate for any attacks made on the Dogos Gear."

Olba closed his transmission window as his brother spoke, moving to fulfill an unspoken command from his brother. He opened an encrypted transmission line to the Dogos Gear. Flay tried not to be conspicuous as she answered it.

"Patch the signal from DOME through when the transmission completes," Olba said. "In the meantime, prepare a warning shot. Target the mobile suit White Base is using to threaten us. Remind them of our ship's superior cannon range."

Flay had just enough self-control not to make a sound. Her fingers strayed to the console. It would require precious few button presses to set up the attack. She knew what to do. She still moved numbly as Shagia finished speaking, not entirely able to reconcile what she was about to do with how she viewed herself.

"You fool!" Garma exclaimed.

Char did not deign to speak, instead ready to begin the attack. He reached out with his spirit to fill nu Gundam's wondrous psychoframe, widening his consciousness of the battlefield. The command to the fin funnels, to dart forth and pour ionized death upon the helpless enemy battleship, was firmly fixed in his will.

It was twisted karma that saved the Dogos Gear that day. When Char's mind opened the funnels would do no more than rattle in their housing. A searing pain, the pain he had momentarily felt when he killed Paptimus Scirocco and destroyed his Dogos Gear, roared back into his mind.

Scirocco was like a hot knife in his psyche, raw and unbearable. Char screamed, unaware that he was doing so. A sensation like laughter, Scirocco's laughter, enveloped him. Char's eyes were open, but unseeing. A frozen blackness like the depths of space had already swallowed him.

Sparks flew from nu Gundam's body, first green and then a horrible red. The suit thrashed unnaturally, as if it was a living body in pain. Its joints locked, its verniers lost all power, and it became a sitting duck. This all happened in the fractions of a second it took Flay to input the firing commands and aim the Dogos Gear's two great particle cannons at nu Gundam's body.

She expected that her shot would be dodged. So did Shagia, Olba, and everyone else who realized what was happening. Instead, the wide-bore particle shots obliterated nu Gundam completely. They passed through the machine's wreckage as its reactor exploded, crossing a few kilometers above White Base and then passed on into infinity.

Char's world dissolved in the heat of the particle beams. Scirocco's laughter, waves of hatred from a furious spirit, rippled around him as it dragged him under.

"Char..." Garma mouthed, numb with shock.

-X-X-X-

Chatter erupted from the mobile suits deployed from White Base, all hiding beneath the carrier so they could surge into battle at a moment's notice. They were a motley group: Witz's Airmaster showing signs of hasty repair, Shin's gleaming Impulse in its Force Silhouette, Gato's demonic GP-02, and Johnny Ridden's mono-eyed Zaku II.

"What the hell?!" Witz exclaimed.

Shin's mind was racing to diagnose the problem. "Some kind of mechanical failure..."

Thouh the GP-02 had its nuclear bazooka mounted to its backpack, it carried merely a beam rifle and a tower shield thick as a ship's hull. Within that grim machine, Gato was shaken by a zealot's grief. "The Red Comet... this... that Feddie must have sabotaged that mobile suit before he left!"

The other pilots were silent for a few moments as Gato said what all couldn't help but think. Witz's voice was tremulous and uncertain as he spoke. "But Amuro's not really that kind of guy...."

Johnny hadn't formally been given command of White Base's frontline squad, but he slipped into the role easily. His voice was firm with authority. "Shin's right. This is a clear case of mechanical failure. We'll find out what caused it after the fight. Get ready to sortie, men."

"... unexpected," Shagia spoke aloud. He was stunned but an altogether different reason: since he hadn't intended to kill the enemy pilot, he wasn't yet sure how to capitalize upon it.

"Nice shot." Olba couldn't disguise his glee. For him, this was simply a better-than-expected outcome.

Flay was silent, but her fingers trembled. It was one thing to hope for someone's death or kill through silent poisons. It was quite another to fire a weapon and cut a man down in his prime, in defiance of all probability or logic.

"Try and leave some for me, huh?" Clotho was impatient to fight. His pill was taped to his suit's dashboard. He wanted it, and a good fight, very badly at this point.

Garma struggled to compose himself. His grief was turning into a vicious fury, one that ached to loose itself on all possible enemies. In his heart of hearts, Amuro Ray was already responsible for Char's death, somehow. "... Frost, we will make what you did to Char seem like nothing. Gentlemen! For the glory of Zeon! Seize the Dogos Gear!"

With the call to attack sounded, chaos erupted in space. The deployed White Base suits surged forward. They had already discussed their plan of attack, which currently relied on exploiting Impulse's speed. For a few moments their divisions were forgotten and they functioned as one.

Shigia shifted his hand on his machine's console, pressing a button. A signal transmitted to Raider, causing the message "PREPARE FOR COMBAT OPERATIONS" to flash in blood-red letters across the mobile suit's main terminal screen. Clotho took his pill immediately, with relish.

Olba signaled Flay again. "Open fire on them. Don't hit us-- but keep them at bay as long as you can. When you get a clear signal from DOME, patch it through to us. That will be victory."

"Alright..." Flay said. She terminated the signals from the White Base units. She didn't want to look at Garma anymore.

Flay programmed the Dogos Gear for a timed series of barrages. It was enough to force Garma into evaside maneuvers, but the auto-targeting was clumsy when it came to aiming at a target that wasn't paralyzed by outside forces. White Base's mobile suits navigated the hail of beams easily. The attack bought the Dogos Gear's suits some time, but not much.

Impulse lead the charge, but Raider was energized. The machine fired a volley of beams across Impulse's broadside, forcing it to stop its charge short. "Not so fast!" Clotho screamed.

Witz was next into the fray, transforming Airmaster into mobile suit mode and opening fire at Raider from above. Raider rolled aside from the blasts, energy dancing around the machine' hideous "mouth" as it charged its plasma cannons once again. "Take this!" Clotho's voice cracked with the force of his hatred. Raider spewed red plasma at Witz's machine with deadly accuracy.

Johnny and Gato weren't yet being harried by the Frosts, but they knew they would be if they dared go any closer. Right now, the barrages of beam fire pulsing from the Dogos Gear were enough to make the two Universal Century machines proceed with caution.

Airmaster dodged nimbly to the side, verniers jetting the machine in a circular sweep around the plasma bolt. "You're slow!" The machine opened fire with another bam shot, before jetting to one side to fire again from a different angle. Impulse joined it, strafing with its beam rifle.

Raider compensated for battle against the two machines with ease, shifting to its mobile armor mode and narrowly evading the twin sets of beams. It charged Airmaster, Clotho well remembering his first clash with the machine, spraying fire from its claw cannons.

While Raider occupied Airmaster and Impulse, Shagia and Olba saw their chance to strike. Ashtaron shifted into its Mobile Armor form. The two machines fell back and combined through curious mechanisms. Virsago's massive claws folded over its hands and locked into Ashtaron's back. Virsago's feet did the same, giving the strange impression that it was riding Ashtaron.

As Virsago joined Ashtaron in this unnatural configuration, a cavity in tis chest opened. Ashtaron began firing with its cannons, easily able to attack and carry along its brother machine. Olba hoped to hit Impulse from behind before it could intervene decisively in Airmaster's battle with Raider.

Shots peppered Airmaster's upper shoulder, sending Witz spiraling off-balance. "Dammit! Gato, Ridden, get in here!" Witz cursed as his machine's controls blossomed into red warning screens.

Shin cursed to himself. He was unable to both assist Witz and deal with the Frosts. The Silhouette's thrusts flared and Impulse juked to one size, before he began weaving toward the huge new target that had taken the field. Virsago opened fire with the massive particle cannon burst it had been building, hoping for just that maneuver.

The GP-02 roared in, its tremendous shield forward. Raider's shots couldn't do much more than score it and Witz breathed easier as Airmaster got a reprieve. Meanwhile, Johnny Ridden shouldered his Zaku II's bazooka and opened fire on the unnatural combination of Virsago and Ashtraon.

Raider shifted back to its mobile suit mode. It deployed a massive flail, which it began swinging overhead with a barbarian's sense of glee. "That shield won't save you from me!" It flared its rockets and swung the brutal weapon overhead, hurtling toward the GP-02.

Gato reversed the GP-02's direction. It wasn't quickly enough to save his machine's shield, which was smashed neatly in half by the force of Raider's smashing weapon. The pilot was undaunted, instead throwing away his beam rifle and drawing forth both of the machine's beam sabers. "Your tactics are transparent!" Gato shouted, broadcasting his comms. The older he got, the more he detested fighting young and inevitably foolish eneies. "Do you think I've never seen the Gundam Hammer?!"

Johnny's bazooka blast was able to disrupt the Virsago's aim, but it was too late to save Impulse from taking the brunt of the blast. Only the unfocused nature of the particle beam and the Force Silhouette's shield kept Shin alive. Impulse's hands still clutched it as the impact drive Impulse back-first into the hull of the Dogos Gear. Only luck and Shin's swift reflexes kept him from hitting a cannon's burst.

Virsago swiftly detached from Ashtaron to deal with the Zaku II's new threat. Ashtaron, meanwhile, settled upon Impulse as its new prey. The machine swiftly shifted to its mobile suit mode and dived at its hated enemy, claws outstretched to try and rend it apart.

The Zaku II was more of a match than Shagia would have expected from what appeared to be a primitive Jenice. It was nimble, dodging easily while firing it bazooka repeatedly at the approaching enemy.

Flay was beginning to feel a rising sense of panic. With the battle virtually on top of the ship now, damage to it would be inevitable. They'd begin tearing apart the cannons, or even worse, attacking her bridge.

A noise to her right jarred her out of her terrified train of thought. It was a beeping noise from the terminal she was using for comms. On a screen inset into the dash, a text message was flashing.

"Microwave facility 'DOME' online and operational. Power at 100%."

Flay smiled. She was tired of the fighting... and now the Frosts would be able to end it once and for all.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

ROSTER STATUS

-- WHITE BASE White Faction

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Garma Zabi Commander / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom  
Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis  
Shin Asuka / Impulse Gundam  
Witz Sou / Gundam Airmaster

- CASUALTIES / DAMAGED

Stellar Loussier / Gaia Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Loran Cehack

-- DOGOS GEAR Black Faction

Shagia Frost Commander / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Flay Allster / Strike Rouge  
Clotho Buer / Raider

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

-- IZUMO Neutral Faction

Rondo Mina Sahaku Commander / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity Gundam  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam


	25. Chapter 25

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: DOME has awakened and the Frosts make their long-planned move. White Base retaliates with the ultimate sanction.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Images and data began to pour across sub-terminals in the Ashtaron's cockpit. It was a few moments before Olba truly noticed that the long-awaited signal from DOME had been patched through to his mobile suit, bringing its Flash System to life.

Olba was lost in the ecstasy of battle, battering Impulse over and over again with Ashtaron's massive claws. The physical impact did no damage to the Impulse itself, thanks to its Phase Shift armor. Olba believed that the blows must be punishing the pilot, though, rattling him viciously in his cockpit. it To kill an opponent meant little to Olba if he couldn't make his enemy suffer first. He would've been disappointed to know how little his gambit could injure a coordinator like Shin.

It took a psychic summons from his brother to make him realize that the long-awaited time had come. #Olba! The Flash System, it's time!#

#Brother-- forgive me!# Olba apologized. Ashtaron began to jet back from Impulse, cautiously. The beam fire it usually would have laid down to cover its retreat was inadvisable when fighting right next to the Dogos Gear's hull.

Virsago's response to the fresh data from DOME was also slow, much to Shagia's consternation. The humble Zaku II that harried the Virsago had proven an opponent irritating beyond anything Shagia had ever faced before, a testament to the consummate piloting skill of Johnny Ridden. With little more than a bazooka and later its drum-fed beam machine gun, the Zaku II had scored and driven back Virsago while easily evading all counter-offensives.

Clotho's battle frenzy was helping Raider keep up with its two opponents, though it was hard to tell how long it would last. Right now the machine was playing keep-away from GP-02's attempt to close to devastating melee. Airmaster was trying to provide fire support while staying clear of Raider's barrages, but it was difficult to apply much pressure without endangering the GP-02.

Impulse pursued Ashtaron, the machines rapidly closing on Virsago. Shagia opened fire with Virsago's sonic cannon, trying to force the Zaku II to fall back. Johnny was forced to give ground or risk having his fragile machine torn apart by the cannon's high-energy vibratory waves.

"Watch your fire, Mr. Asuka!" Johnny's voice was firm and even as he opened his comms frequencies. His brilliantly-painted Zaku-II fell back further, to avoid being a victim of friendly fire.

"They're up to something! We can't let them get away!" Shin snapped back.

"They're not retreating," Johnny said.

Impulse finally slowed, settling into a strong flanking position to the Zaku-II's right. "Then what are they doing?" Shin asked.

Johnny had no immediate answer. His Zaku-II's monitors, grainy but serviceable, clearly showed the two units drifting to within meters of each other. He couldn't imagine what the Frosts intended to do next; fighting back-to-back would give them no tactical advantage when they were so close to their own ship.

Gato's tortured scream ripped through the open comms channels. He pushed the GP-02 too hard to close to melee range, putting too much faith in his skill with the machine's beam saber. Raider's Mjolnir hammer had torn the GP-02's arm off with a single surging blow. A less skillful pilot than Gato might have gotten his machine's cockpit smashed, too.

Clotho's cackling laughter flooded the comms channels. It had an inhuman, demented quality. "Is there a problem, old man?" Raider readied itself for a second, surely fatal blow.

"Gato! Fall back, fall back!" Witz surged Airmaster forward in MA mode, rapidly transforming into MS mode after a brief, hard reverse-fire of his thrusters. Airmaster still had a little momentum as it aimed its beam rifles, but Witz knew how to compensate for that. He couldn't score a hit on Raider, but he did drive the machine back from killing range.

Gato's moment of distress gave the Frosts the opening they needed. They expected that the GP-02's damage would distract Johnny and Shin, if even for a moment, and they were correct.

Ashtaron turned its back on the field of battle, a maneuver that would have been fatal in other circumstances. In that moment Shagia and Olba knew their positioning was perfect. They had drawn parallel with DOME, whose power their opponents could not understand.

Something began to rise from Ashtaron's back as its geometry changed, something that began to resemble a cannon as it unfolded. The transfigured Ashtaron gained handles as it became less a Mobile Suit or Mobile Armor and more of a weapons platform.

Virsago completed its transformation, extending strike claws that seemed designed to interface perfectly with Ashtaron's new transformation. The "wings" that revealed its sonic cannons reconfigured, becoming reflective and brilliant. Virsago then docked with Ashtaron's new form, its feet fitting snugly into magnetic clamps.

"I can stop 'em before they fire!" Shin had already decided the combined form was some new weapon, devastating but likely slow and awkward.

Johnny still felt uneasy. If the Frosts were deploying a mere particle beam cannon, why the complex transformation? Why the precise orbital alignment? "Don't rush in. I don't like this..."

"Federation slime!" Gato cursed his opponents. "A Mega Launcher is your gambit? Don't think that will save you!"

Olba did not sound at all himself when he responded. His voice cracked with murderous excitement. "This is no 'Mega Launcher'. Compared to this weapon... the light of a nuclear bomb is but a tiny speck against the glow of the cosmos!"

"No, they didn't. They couldn't... that's the Satellite System!" Witz's voice was so panicked it was almost a screech. "EVERYONE! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Shagia's laughter was rich and low. "This is our response to your rebellion, our mailed fist that will bring the world to its knees! Behold, the Satellite Launcher!"

A beam of light lanced upward from the moon, filling the conjoined machines with a horrible radiance. The machines absorbed it, priming themselves to unleash devastation.

Flay began quietly backing the Dogos Gear away from the battlefield. If the Frosts were successful at this point, her presence would no longer be needed. If they failed, she'd just as well not get dragged down with them.

Garma has spent the battle nervously holding his distance, knowing that he couldn't get in range to do anything with the Trojan Horse's cannons while they fought so close to the Dogos Gear. Now he realized that he was part of the fight, whether he liked it or not. "Colonel Gato! It's up to you, now!"

The GP-02 dropped its shield. The mechanisms on its back, undamaged, began to raise the Gundam's oversized bazooka into place. Fortunately, the arm Gato would need to steady and target the weapon was still intact. The process took mere fractions of a second. He flared his verniers, so he wouldn't be too close to the Frosts when the bazooka's nuclear payload went off.

"Feel the wrath of those in space!" Gato cried. "SIEG ZEON!" The bazooka launched, its deadly payload shrieking towards the Frosts.

Under the influence of gamma glipheptin, Clotho was incapable of thinking very seriously about saving his own life. It was hard for him to want anything but to destroy. In this climactic moment, he was far from any handler that might have restrained or reasoned with him.

Clotho shrieked down at the stunned White Faction machines, hoping to catch them unawares. His machine's mouth-mounted Zorn cannon screamed death into the silent void. His target was the wounded GP-02, a sitting duck as Gato fired on the Frosts.

Impulse's instruments detected Raider's incoming attack at the same time the others did, but Shin's reflexes were superior to those of the other pilots by orders of magnitude. Something in Shin seemed to crack open. He charged at Raider as it fired, his MS able to accelerate at speeds that would have crushed a Natural pilot.

Shagia viciously stabbed a button on his MS's command console as the Satellite Cannon's charge finally completed. An immense wave of violent energy tore free of the thin barrel of the Satellite Cannon, shredding everything in its path.

-X-X-X-

Several things occurred at once in the few violent seconds that saw the near-simultaneous attack of the Satellite System and the GP-02's Nuclear Bazooka.

Shin Asuka tore Impulse free of the Satellite System's path of fire, but only narrowly. Raider was caught in the blast and consumed in a white instant. As such close range, there was simply nothing left of it, let alone its drug-crazed pilot. Clotho died laughing, imagining he was seconds away from the kill.

Gato launched the Nuclear Bazooka from farther away, but he was still in the Satellite System's path. He did not expect to survive when he saw his cockpit monitor screens fill with a terrible white light. Instead of death, though, he found himself floating peacefully in space moments later, the GP-02's wreckage entangled with that of another Mobile Suit.

Witz had risked the daredevil maneuvering required to physically pull his machine out of harm's way, despite knowing the Satellite System's capabilities. Airmaster was a wreck once more and Gato found himself entirely re-evaluating his opinion of mercenaries.

The Frost Brothers had experienced a brief rapture as the Satellite System fired, their aspiration to godhood briefly fulfilled. The sudden whine of their sensors as the GP-02's nuclear warhead closed in on them was shattering. Shagia had only one thought before he died.

#Olba...#

#If it must be, let it be like this-- us, together, connected.# There was no fear in Olba's mind.

The nuclear detonation reduced Ashtaron, Virsago, and its Satellite System to ashes in an instant. The explosion force was enough to rattle the surviving Mobile Suits in the area and even the Dogos Gear, but the weapon was precise enough that it killed only the Frost Brothers.

-X-X-X-

The Frosts had taken aim at the far-distant White Base with their attack. Garma had tried to maneuver the fortress out of the way, but it would have been impossible to succeed completely. The microwave blast tore White Base open, the shot not quite as dead-center as it might have been without evasive maneuvers.

Garma was quietly surprised when the terrible white light faded and he realized that he was still alive. The bridge had been spared, though White Base's body was so badly damaged that the ship was dying by inches. Explosions spread throughout its damaged remains like a burning cancer.

His first thought was of escape and survival. His second thought was of Stellar Loussier, possibly dead somewhere in the ship's depths, possibly trapped and in need of rescue. His third thought was of his personal pride and how terribly wounded it would be if he returned without some account of Stellar's fate.

Garma could hear Johnny crying out to him through White Base's comms signals. "Lord Garma? Please, Lord Garma, respond!"

Garma found his voice was a hoarse croak. "I live. I will see to the ship's evacuation."

"Evacuation--" Johnny paused in his cockpit. His Zaku II managed to stay well clear of the Satellite System's beam, though the nuclear detonation that consumed the Frosts had briefly knocked out his machine's primary electrical systems. "-- Lord Garma, you can't be serious--"

"Zeon is nothing without her honor. I will not leave without Stellar!" Garma thought he sounded stronger now. The loss of artificial gravity that followed the blast felt less disorienting. He was ready to attempt something heroic, perhaps foolhardy, and certainly glorious.

"We've got nowhere to take her, Lord Garma." Johnny could feel that his chances of reasoning with Garma were slight, but he felt he had to try.

"Don't be ridiculous. The Frosts are dead, aren't they? I order you to board the Dogos Gear immediately and prepare it for my arrival!" Garma was already making his way into White Base's tangle of passageways.

Johnny disliked the order, but wasn't the kind of man not to execute it to the utmost of his ability. "... yes, sir."

The power had long since gone out by the time Garma reached the infirmary. Stellar was unconscious, floating aimlessly in mid-air. They'd maneuvered her into a Normal Suit before the battle for just this sort of contingency, so Garma didn't expect issues getting her to the hangar. He was less sure about how they'd escape if the hangar hadn't survived intact.

As it happened, the hangar had been torn apart by internal explosions rather than simply annihilated by the horror of the Satellite System. It took what felt like an inordinately long time, but Garma eventually found his custom Zaku II floating in an area that was not quite inside nor outside of the disintegrating ship. It was more a band of slowly-spreading debris, containing all manner of supplies and even a pair of Impulse's silhouette Flyers.

He tried to make Stellar passably comfortable in his cockpit, then began making his way from the Trojan Horse's death throes. Garma wasn't sad to see it destroyed in this way. From the very beginning, he'd felt there was something unlucky about the ship, almost like a sense of doom. He couldn't help but feel now that he'd escaped somehow.

-X-X-X-

Flay rose from her seat on the Dogos Gear's bridge. Her mouth fell open in helpless terror, eyes wide. "-- OLBA!" she shrieked, her pain filling only her own ears. "... Clotho... everyone...." Flay knew in that second that she was alone and that it was only a matter of time before the surviving White Base forces came for her.

It was more than Flay could take. Tears came quickly from her eyes. She sank to the ground, crying so hard that her chest heaved and her voice cracked in a terribly ugly fashion. "You can't die! We won! WE WON!!"

Flay wasn't sure how long she cried. It felt like a very long time, but she would have expected someone from the opposing team to come and kill her if she'd really taken too long about it. Once she had the worst of it out of her system, she made her way to the comms panel.

She sent a communications transmission across all bands, at the highest strength she could manage. "We surrender. We surrender! So you have to leave me alone... you have to keep that coordinator away from me! You can't kill me, I surrendered!" She started sobbing again as she spoke. A sudden fit of shame made her cut the transmission off entirely.

The White Base attackers heard as they regrouped to try and execute what was, for all they knew, Garma's final command. Johnny's custom Zaku II and Shin's Impulse were intact. The GP-02 and Airmaster were so smashed up that it was hard to tell which unit was pulling the other. Airmaster was doing the steering, at least, as it had more of its limbs.

"At least they gave up," Witz sighed. It was one thing to smash Airmaster up on paying jobs, but all of this damage taken in what amounted to a charity job was galling.

"We accept your surrender, Dogos Gear. Stand by," Johnny said. His voice contained no trace of sympathy or hatred for the weepy girl that was left as the ship's sole survivor.

A transmission went out from another source, one that set Johnny's mind at ease as the small group of Mobile Suits began moving forward. It was Garma's salvaged Zaku, banged up but clearly still operational. "I've withdrawn from White Base. Miss Stellar Loussier is alive and well in my company. Let's abandon ship for now and go back for salvage later."

Impulse seemed to come back to life at that. The machine began pressing forward to Dogos Gear's waiting hangar, moving well ahead of the others. "At last. Let's end this."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

ROSTER STATUS  
-- White Faction  
- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Garma Zabi (Commander) / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom  
Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis  
Shin Asuka / Impulse Gundam

Witz Sou / Gundam Airmaster  
- CASUALTIES / DAMAGED  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia Gundam  
- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Loran Cehack

-- DOGOS GEAR Black Faction  
Flay Allster / Strike Rouge  
- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider

-- IZUMO Neutral Faction  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity Gundam  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam


	26. Chapter 26

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Spacenoid faction seizes the Dogos Gear, while the Izumo prepares to face the aftermath of the battle.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Dogos Gear's hangar stood empty, save for the Hyaku Shiki and Strike Rouge. There was plenty of room for the new Mobile Suits coming aboard and no signs of traps or ambush. There was no sound but the singular background hum of the ship's mechanisms at work.

Garma maneuvered Stellar as carefully out of his Zaku II as he could. In a ship's partial gravity, she was a bit harder to carry. He found himself grateful for the chance to quickly hand her off to Shin, whose face was pale and anxious.

"Good work, everyone! Do we have any casualties?" Garma asked.

Witz glanced back over his shoulder. Airmaster was so damaged it could no longer stand. He'd been forced to leave the Mobile Suit slumped against a wall. "Nah, guess not."

"I'm alright, commander, thanks to Mister Witz's assistance. Fate seems to have chosen Zeon in this battle," said Gato.

"I'm well enough. I think for now we need to secure the bridge and see to Miss Loussier's injuries," Johnny said.

"Stellar, where do I go?" Shin asked her. He didn't seem to expect an answer, though her eyes in time fluttered open.

"Flay will help," Stellar responded. Her voice was so soft Shin could barely hear her. "Flay is Stellar's friend."

Gato withdrew his sidearm. "Then it seems we'll go to the bridge together."

-X-X-X-

They found the bridge soon enough. Flay was still on the floor, back to the comms console where she had made her last call. Her knees were to her chin and it appeared she'd spent much of the intervening time shivering and crying.

Shin had to suppress a snarl at the sight of her EA uniform. The urgency of the moment served primarily to keep his temper in check, that and a general distaste for treating even Alliance women poorly. He kept Stellar in his arms as he approached Flay, his eyes a frigid red as he looked down at her.

"Help Stellar," he said. It was not a request so much as a command.

Flay began edging away from Shin, all but crawling along the ground. Her eyes watered anew, terror rising in her voice. "Stay away! Stay away from me!"

"She's dying! Help her!" Shin shouted, venting his frustration as anger.

"Flay, Shin is nice..." Stellar's voice was thin and pitiful as she attempted to be soothing.

Flay scrambled to her feet, awkward in her mini-skirt. Her hose had already developed a nasty run. "I'll take her there, but... you stay away from me!"

Shin could think of nothing to do but shout more. "I'm not leaving her alone with you!"

The scene was growing too pitiful for the Zeon to bear. Garma was the first to step in, sidearm at his side but lowered. "Miss Allster, that's quite enough. You're in no position to make demands. No one will harm you, but you must cooperate."

Gato was quick to reinforce his commander. "Take Mister Asuka to your infirmary. After that we'll escort you to the brig."

Flay could only relax once she had the word of fellow Naturals that she would be safe from the monster in red that stood before her. She raised her hands in surrender. "You'll need me to work the machine."

Garma nodded. "As you say. Please lead the way."

Stellar began drifting back into unconsciousness in Shin's arms. "See, Flay is nice..."

Shin gritted his teeth. He would say nothing unkind to Stellar, but he didn't care much for her Alliance friend at the moment.

-X-X-X-

Amuro found himself deeply regretting his decision to part ways with the Izumo. The instigating incident occurred a few hours ago, still fresh enough in his mind to make him feel deeply ill. He had been sitting at the bridge of the Izumo, reading through the vast stores of Cosmic Era data stored on its memory banks while most of the business of steering the ship was handled automatically.

His attention suddenly wandered while reading a previously-engrossing treatise on the manufacture of high-density MS-scale batteries. For a moment he had thought he might just be tired. He could still clearly recall leaving his seat and walking toward the vast starfield that displayed on the Izumo's forward monitor, thinking to refresh his eyes.

He could remember Christina saying something to him, though he couldn't recall exactly what. His attention was caught by a flicker of light, infinitesimally small, shooting through the darkness of space. As if a comet was soaring far, far away... but no, that light wasn't a comet. It was... something he had no name for, something enormous and terrible....

The image that flooded his mind next was still painfully fresh in Amuro's mind. He had seen White Base, torn in half by something that blazed through it like the wrath of an angry and pitiless god. He saw Char gone, not just dead but completely gone, as if swallowed into a dark pit. He saw a ball of nuclear fire blossom in the darkness, extinguishing lives lived in bitterness and hatred.

Amuro was not entirely clear on what had happened after the abrupt vision had struck him. He must have cried out and he might have staggered over. The next thing he remembered was Ed shaking him, asking him if he was okay. Rondo had hovered near by him, her expression openly curious. Amuro could not remember what he told them; it probably wasn't coherent at first.

Rondo seemed to grasp the implications of a fit of Newtype clairvoyance before the others, for all that she'd only heard the term five minutes ago. "I see no reason to doubt Captain Ray's perceptions. We're approaching at full speed, we should be at the coordinates within a few hours. I suggest seeing to you Mobile Suits and preparing to sortie."

Amuro escaped from the bridge as quickly as possible. He had the uneasy feeling that Ed and Christina saw him differently now and he couldn't really blame them for it. His psychic impressions had been growing for many months now, long before the Beyonder had shanghaied him into this strange wargame. Anaheim had even measured output increases during the early Psychoframe test sessions.

It was one thing to know he was particularly good at designing circuits because he was a Newtype and quite another to experience truly extrasensory perceptions because of it. He had never experienced a vision so abrupt and strong before, at least not while awake.

Amuro had fled to the hangar, to throw himself into some comfortable work. He tried to occupy himself with checks of the systems Hachi had helped him decipher, though Turn-A still remained largely inscrutable. Hachi had recently discovered that it supported some sort of complicated I-Field system, though it wasn't clear just how strong it might be yet.

"Hey, what happened? You seem pretty freaked out," Hachi flashed upon its screen.

"I'm fine. It's nothing serious," Amuro replied.

"Heh. Amuro, you're a lousy liar." Ed's voice was alarmingly close. A few seconds later he was resting his arms on the entrance to Turn-A's cockpit, feet apparently resting on the access ladder that dangled below.

"Ed!" Amuro frowned. His voice took on the chiding tone he'd picked up in dealing with green recruits over the past few years. "You shouldn't be doing that with magnetic shoes on."

"Well, how about you come down to the floor with me and we talk?" Ed asked. "You think I climbed up here because I'm not worried about you?"

Hachi's screen flashed new words. "Good timing."

Amuro's frown became a scowl. He grunted. "Fine."

They spoke again once Amuro's feet were just touching the hangar floor. "Y'know, I've gotta say, I've never seen anything like Turn-A's cockpit before. Looks too confusing for its own good, if you ask me."

"It's not so bad," Amuro said. "Though I can't say I've ever seen anything like it before..."

"So, seriously, are you okay? I thought you were havin' a seizure or something back on the bridge." Ed's tone was more earnest now. "Is that some kinda usual Newtype thing?"

Amuro sighed again. "No, it's not usual. As far as I can tell, I'm fine. I don't really want to dwell on it."

Ed shrugged. "Hey, it's cool. I just don't know how this works, you know? Coordinators don't do this kind of stuff."

"It's a manifestation of powerful qi." Domon managed to startle both men, descending to the hangar's floor from a service deck high above in a superhuman leap. "In my world, it would make you a great Gundam Fighter!"

Both men regarded Domon in disbelief, before Ed broke the tension with sudden laughter. "-- oh man! I just-- you doing that crazy kung fu stuff--"

Amuro was not a man much given to laughter, but he couldn't help himself this time. The image was too hopelessly absurd. "I couldn't-- couldn't possibly--"

Domon's mouth quirked downward quizzically. For a moment, he looked more like a young-man than a battle-hardened warrior. "It's true! The Gundam Fighter of Neo-France--"

"George de Sand is a pansy, King of Hearts." The sound of footfalls rang heavily out through the hangar. "And personally, I doubt your army goon pals are any better."

"Michelo!" Domon's voice was cold, his face stern once more.

Edward and Amuro stopped laughing. Michelo Chariot's grin widened, pleased with the reaction to his show of force. "Sorry to interrupt your tea party, ladies, but I heard I missed something real interesting earlier today."

Domon moved swiftly to block Michelo's path. His brows furrowed.

Michelo stopped at the quiet threat. "Take it easy. I ain't here to bust heads."

"You are an underhanded liar." Domon's fists clenched.

"It's fine, Domon," Amuro said. Ed gawked at him. "... well, he won't do anything if he still wants to get to the moon..."

"That's right, soldier boy. I'm here to ask you a question, since it sounds like you've got yourself a little ESP," Michelo said. "How about you be a pal and tell me if the Frost Brothers managed to get themselves blown up today?"

Amuro closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of how to answer. Blurred details of the vision swam through his thoughts. It was hard to focus on just one thing. "... probably," he said.

Michelo cackled. "Couldn't even win with their big super-weapon, huh?" His grin became slit-like and sinister. "Two less problems for me, then."

Ed quirked an eyebrow at this. "Wait, why are you so happy? Weren't you goin' to the moon to beat these guys up?"

"Puttin' up with you dorks is still worth it," Michelo turned away from the group, satisfied with Amuro's answer. "I've still got one more score to settle before I can start thinking about playin' the Beyonder's game again."

"You like the sound of your own voice too much, Michelo." Domon's voice was still icy.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, King of Hearts, I'll get around to you." Michelo began to walk away, though he knew he wouldn't get far without Domon following him.

"Sheesh. Nice guy." Edward shook his head.

"He really is dangerous." Amuro nodded.

"He's just loud," Domon groused. "It's as you say, Amuro Ray. He'll do nothing until we get to the moon."

"Yeah, but what happens after we're at the moon?" Ed asked.

"You won't be convincing him to fight the Beyonder. Michelo Chariot's greed will drive him to take the prize at all costs." Domon's voice was firm and absolute. He strode after Michelo, his footfalls absolutely (and improbably) silent.

-X-X-X-

The Spacenoid forces that now occupied the Dogos Gear knew full well that their next challenge could end up being the Izumo, which was surely still following their trail. With Stellar back in good health, it was easy enough to occupy Shin by sending him out to salvage debris from White Base.

Once Shin brought back Stellar's Gaia, operational and intact, the two could work as a team. Witz helped them from time to time, but the beating he'd taken inside his cockpit kept him resting in his bunk most of the time.

Flay was a model prisoner of war, staying in the brig most of the time and helping assist with whatever was required of her. Shin felt the revulsion he felt at their first meeting melting away a little each time he brought her a meal or took her up to Stellar's pod in the medical bay.

It was all too easy to see in Flay the boy he had been after Orb and before ZAFT, traumatized and alone. He was unsurprised when he found her father had been killed in a battle recently. Shin couldn't tell if Flay was growing to like him any better or not, for her part, but at least she didn't scream at him anymore.

The Zeon officers took over the bridge and pondered the more disturbing matter of what their current situation meant. As far as they could tell, everyone from the opposing faction was dead or had surrendered, yet the Beyonder didn't seem to consider them the victors. Could that mean some enemy remained somewhere in the Earthsphere, undefeated? Or was the Beyonder simply a liar?

"The White Devil is going to betray us." Garma's voice was fraught. He felt even less comfortable in the Dogos Gear's captain's chair than he did in the Trojan Horse's. "It's the only logical possibility!"

Johnny frowned from his comms station chair. "It's true that's a possibility we can't ignore, but..." Johnny trailed off. He couldn't quite put it into words, but he felt as if there was something they were overlooking.

"There is a member of the original Dogos Gear crew that appears to be unaccounted for," Gato spoke from his station at the bridge's sensor array. "As I recall, there was among their number a Gundam Fighter by the name of Michelo Chariot."

"You don't think the Beyonder would keep us here because one man continued to oppose us, do you?" Garma asked. "He would have no hope whatsoever of victory, it would be supremely pointless."

"We understand that, but I wonder if the Beyonder would," said Johnny. Gato's intel about the Gundam Fighter felt right to him. "I recall his win condition was until the enemy had surrendered or was annihilated."

"He could have parted ways with the Frost Brothers at Loum," Gato said. His expression became dark. "If the Feddies could get another ship easily, so could he. Chariot could be anywhere in the Earthsphere by now..."

Johnny thought for a moment. "Our best hope of finding Michelo Chariot is probably the Gundam Fighter that left with Captain Ray's detachment, Domon Kasshu. Our next move should probably be trying to track down their ship."

"And what if we're heading right into the enemy's jaws, Commander Ridden? What if the White Devil really is our enemy?" Garma asked.

"Then I hope Captain Ray is feeling reasonable enough to surrender," Johnny sighed. Somehow, though, he doubted the situation with the Federal defectors would be so easily resolved.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

ROSTER STATUS

-- DOGOS GEAR White Faction  
- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Garma Zabi (Commander) / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom  
Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis  
Shin Asuka / Impulse  
Witz Sou / Gundam Airmaster  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Loran Cehack  
Capital Ship WHITE BASE

-- Black Faction  
Flay Allster / Strike Rouge (Surrendered)  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider 

-- IZUMO Neutral Faction  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam


	27. Chapter 27

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Is one man's unreasoning hatred enough to drag out the Beyonder's Gundam War? Evidence mounts, and the pilots must brace for terrible new meetings and old reunions.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The brig was deep within the bowels of the Dogos Gear. The cells were small, uncomfortable, and sterile. Flay was permitted the indulgence of a data pad for entertainment, but Flay only used it when she couldn't sleep. Otherwise, there were only three times each day when she felt alive.

Shin and Stellar brought Flay her meals. At first Shin was quiet and brusque, impatient to leave, but Stellar always wanted to stay. So Shin allowed it, at first merely standing guard while Stellar lead Flay through the sort of uneven conversations children have with adults. Stellar began begging him to speak, so he did, and Flay soon found she had little choice but to speak back.

Before long, Shin and Flay knew more about each other than either ever would have expected. Flay began to look forward to the visits with the affection of actual friendship, if a sad and desperate one. Shin found himself able to speak to Flay the way he used to speak to Natural girls back in Orb. They avoided the subject of ZAFT and the Alliance, but that was easy enough in Stellar's presence.

One thing bothered Flay, though. Everyone else on her side was dead, so why hadn't something happened to end the Gundam War? She hadn't asked Shin about it before, not wanting to waste her one chance at conversation, but today she felt up to it. She had grown restless, unsure exactly how long she'd been in the cell anymore.

The door clanged open at the appointed time; Shin was sometimes as punctual as a computer. "Hello, Flay!" Stellar said, her smile wide and empty.

"Hello, Stellar, Shin. What fattening thing have you brought me today?"

Shin peered down at the MRE tray's cover. "Beef ravioli. I think."

Flay scowled despite her stomach rumbling with hunger. "Ugh. I'd kill for a salad. At this rate I'm going to burst my skirt at the seams."

"It tastes good! Flay will like it," Stellar said.

Flay did like it once she started eating. It was hard to stay vain when she had no one left to impress. She hesitated artfully between bites, trying to keep her glance at Shin casual. "You know, Shin, there's something I'm curious about..."

He glanced down at her, never willing to sit on the brig's hard metal bunk.

"Why are we still here? Hasn't anyone seen the Beyonder yet?"

Shin's slight frown grew deeper. "Nobody really knows. Gato's people have a theory, but... it sucks."

"What is it?" Flay asked.

"They think someone else from the other team is still out there," Shin said. "The Gundam Fighter guy."

Flay dropped her fork.

Shin continued. "Gato thinks maybe that guy hijacked a shuttle, killed the crew, and took it to Loum. Who knows where he went from there, but it'd take forever to find him. That's why I said it sucks."

Flay began trembling so violently that her dinner tray slid off her lap. Stellar dived, just barely catching it.

"What's wrong?" Stellar asked. "Is Flay sick?"

There was a hysterical crack in Flay's voice. She was shouting. "It's not true! He's dead, Michelo Chariot is dead!"

Shin was momentarily too startled to speak. "I don't-- I mean, why--"

"I killed him! I had to kill him, Shin, he was a monster!"

"Wait, how--"

"I poisoned him. I tricked him! He has to be dead, Shin! If he's not, he's... if he found me..." Flay began trembling again. She hugged herself.

Shin couldn't bear the sight of Flay's agony. Hot determination entered his voice. "Nothing's going to happen to you. You don't need to be afraid of him."

He could see that Flay wasn't consoled. For the first time, Shin sat down on the bunk next to her. He took one of Flay's hands into his. She stared at him, startled.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

Flay's heart pounded in her chest. Shin's fingers, in this moment, were no less soft and gentle than those of another coordinator who had promised her much the same thing. She was utterly speechless.

"Shin said he would protect Stellar, and he did." For a moment, Stellar's voice was neither empty nor child-like.

Flay's fingers tightened about Shin's. She gripped as hard as she dared, knowing she couldn't possibly hurt him. Shin's face was utterly free of pain as she spoke. "Please. Please, you have to. I can't... I don't even know why I'm here..."

Tears came to her eyes for the first time in days. They did not come silently, but instead as part of wracking sobs that shook her entire body.

Shin felt a hot flush spread through his body as Flay all but collapsed onto him, crying helplessly. He had no idea what to do. The only girl he really spent much time with was Lunamaria, who he couldn't begin to imagine acting like this.

He tried to appeal for help from Stellar with his eyes, but Stellar was much too innocent to entirely understand the source of Shin's discomfort. "Stellar will go put Flay's dinner away so she can eat later!" She then strode toward the door, still smiling, great purpose in every step.

-X-X-X-

Stellar took an elevator up one deck, then through the twisty hallways that separated her from her goal. She did not once get lost or lose focus. She was supremely satisfied with herself when she slid Flay's tray into a brushed steel refrigeration unit.

She had intended to go back down to the brig and report her success, then perhaps try to help Flay feel better. Instead, she was distracted by the sound of the mess hall door opening behind her. Unfamiliar voices voices were chattering to each other.

"Still no one. How can a ship this large have no crew?"

"Maybe they've yet to arrive... or maybe they're all dead."

Stellar peered around the corner of the refrigeration unit, which was large enough to conceal her from view. She could immediately recognize the insignias and patterns on the two women's uniforms. They dressed like Shin's friends, the Zeons. Stellar could see that lady Zeons were allowed to be much more glamorous than their male counterparts, though.

One of them was dressed like a princess, a six-pointed tiara crowning her short pink hair. A regal cape spilled down her shoulders, attached to great pointed shoulderpads, while the Zeon eagle covering her sleeveless uniform's chest.

The other woman had long black hair with an emerald sheen and wore a great brown coat over her red uniform. She also carried a fan, closed for now, which she tapped into a gloved hand impatiently.

"That would be just my luck, wouldn't it?" pink-hair said. "But come on, let's keep looking..."

"Wait, wait! Stellar knows where your friends are!" Stellar dashed around the refrigeration unit to reveal herself.

Both women whirled around in surprise. Their initial glances at Stellar were not friendly.

"Oh, for... is this a Federation ship?" dark-hair asked.

"Stellar is not Federation! Stellar is Alliance, which is like the Federation but different. Stellar isn't going to fight for the Alliance anymore because Mr. Neo isn't here and if he was then Stellar would have to be Shin's enemy and that would be sad. Stellar just wears her uniform now because she made it very pretty."

The two newcomers stared at Stellar in complete bafflement. Stellar frowned, getting the uneasy sense that she had somehow done or said something wrong.

The pink-haired princess seemed to sense her discomfort. Her tone was soothing when she spoke. "Of... of course, we understand. Now, did Stellar say she knew where our friends were?"

"Yes, the Zeons all stay on the bridge together and run the ship."

Dark-hair's expression was less happy than Stellar might have expected. "Other Zeon, you say? Yes, we must meet them right away."

-X-X-X-

"GARAHAU!" Gato roared, rising from his ops station. A fury unlike anything Johnny or Garma had ever seen before burned in Gato's eyes.

The dark-haired woman in the Zeon commander's uniform fanned herself nonchalantly, not looking Gato in the eye. "Well. I see my reputation precedes me."

Stellar was entirely unprepared for anything like this. Her voice was tiny and soft. "Did Stellar do bad?"

"How dare you set foot on this ship! What are you doing here?!" Gato continued shouting, pointing a finger at the woman he called Garahau. "Am I to believe the Beyonder is fool enough to think we'd consider you an ally?!"

"Lieutenant, that's quite enough. Stand down." The pink-haired woman strode through the bridge's entrance like an empress, her costume a flash of gold.

A curious change came over Anavel Gato. It was as if he froze for a few moments, falling silent. His aggressive posture went slack, eyes widening. "Commander Karn?"

Johnny arched an eyebrow at that. Garma glanced at him, as if hoping for some explanation of who this Karn person was, but Johnny could only shake his head. Whoever she was, she couldn't have been anyone of interest in UC 0079.

Zeon discipline reasserted itself in Gato. He straightened his back, squared his shoulders, and saluted his commanding officer with a true believer's devotion. "Forgive my outburst, Commander Karn, but you must believe me. Cima Garahau is not a woman to be trusted, under any circumstances."

"I am aware of Commander Garahau's record. So I will ask you again, Lieutenant..." She paused, glancing expectantly in Gato's direction.

"Gato, ma'am, Anavel Gato."

"... so I will ask you again, Lieutenant Gato, to stand down and treat Commander Garahau with decorum."

He saluted again, his voice neutral though his eyes smoldered. "Understood."

Stellar cast a pleading glance toward Garma and Johnny. The situation was clearly incomprehensible to her. "Did Stellar do bad? Why is everyone mad?"

Johnny usually found dealing with Stellar very tiresome, but at the moment he sympathized. "Stellar did very well. She is dismissed."

Stellar's face lit up. She saluted Johnny, then immediately skipped out the door. He imagined she was about to relate a very garbled (and therefore upsetting) version of events to Shin.

After dealing with that situation, Johnny stepped forward, making sure he had the attention of everyone else in the room. "Now, I believe some introductions are in order."

"Oh, but Lieutenant Gato's already done me the honor," Cima said. Her eyes twinkled with malice as she spoke. In theory she was a handsome enough woman, but there was something Johnny found distinctly pinched and unpleasant in her features.

"I am Haman Karn, leader of Neo-Zeon and commander of its armies." Gato's commander introduced herself imperiously. "And you are?"

"Commander Johnny Ridden, ma'am, under command of Kycilia Zabi. Given that I am from UC 0079, I think it may be useful for you to disclose what years you ladies are from. I imagine you are from a future time."

"UC 0083, like Lieutenant Gato," Cima said. "In fact, I believe we've both been assigned to the Delaz Fleet's Operation Stardust."

"I am from UC 0088. I take pleasure in informing you-- all of you-- that Zeon has risen again as a true power in the Earthsphere. At the time of my departure, my troops were seizing North Africa."

Gato could not quite contain the excitement this revelation prompted in him. "So that is why you no longer call us the Axis Zeon!"

Haman smiled. "Indeed. We are no longer exiles."

Garma never took well to being ignored, but being ignored by new Zeon-aligned recruits was enough to send him into a mighty fit of pique. He stormed forward. "If I may introduce myself," Garma said, "I am Garma Zabi, and I am frankly disturbed to see officers of Zeon rank who are apparently incapable of recognizing me! How can any good Zeon fail to recognize a member of the Zabi family?"

The two women did in fact seem to be paying attention to Garma for the first time. Their expressions became searching, as if they were struggling to attach the name and face before them to a substantial memory.

"Why, it is him," Cima finally said. She looked a little incredulous. "Yes, it has to be! His face is just like the portrait."

"I must beg your forgiveness, Lord Garma," Haman said. She dropped to one knee, bowing her head. "Please do not think me an enemy of the Zabi family. I have protected your niece Minerva for nearly ten years--"

"Brother Dozul's child?" Garma asked. "Why? Where is he in your time?"

Haman raised her head, looking Garma in the eye. Her sad, gentle smile did not suit her face. "I fear he is dead, Lord Garma. As are you and the rest of your family."

Garma went pale. His breath grew heavy. "What-- what--" He sounded as if his voice might crack. "Gato, this can't be true. Tell me this isn't true!"

Gato could not look him in the eye. "I'm sorry, sir."

"You didn't tell me?! My entire family dead, and you didn't even think to tell me?!" Garma was screaming.

Johnny put a hand on his shoulder. "I asked Lieutenant Gato. I felt there would be no point in upsetting you, because the death of the Zabi family is not going to happen."

Garma and the newcomers glanced sharply at him. "What--" Garma asked.

"I have every intention of surviving the Beyonder's Gundam War and returning to UC 0079 with you. Armed with the knowledge we've gained here, we cannot fail to change the outcome of the One Year War." Johnny's expression was neutral, but his voice was unyielding.

Haman rose smoothly to her feet. "That is a marvelously ambitious plan, Commander Ridden. It will be my honor to be a part of it." She paused before glancing at Garma, her expression softer. "Forgive my unkindness, Lord Garma."

Garma's chest was heaving as he tried to calm himself. Johnny's explanation was exactly what he needed to hear. "Yes... yes, it hasn't happened yet, we can change it...."

"Let me demonstrate my loyalty to you, Lord Garma," Haman said. "Take to your quarters and rest while I assume command of the ship. I'm sure Lieutenant Gato can tell me everything I might need to know about our situation."

Johnny wished he could sigh. He could tell from Garma's expression that he was wholly taken in by either Haman's acting or her sheer personal charisma. "Yes, that's... yes, that's probably for the best, Commander Karn...."

"Let me escort you to your quarters, Lord Garma," Johnny said. He had the feeling now that leaving Garma's side for more than a second would be terribly wise.

Cima watched the two men from the One Year War depart. She disliked them, but she also disliked Haman and certainly disliked Gato. She definitely disliked the ugly dump of a Federation ship the Beyonder had seen fit to exile her into. This simply wouldn't do. She'd need to play nice while she kept her eyes peeled for a better opportunity.

She flicked her fan open, then glanced back to Haman and Gato. He stood at Haman's side as she assumed the captain's chair with the grace and arrogance of a queen. Cima decided that she didn't detest Haman so much as the idea that Zeon hadn't fallen apart yet by UC 0088. Maybe she'd do something about that, too...

Cima made sure she covered her lips with her fan before she began quietly laughing.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Yes, I used Haman Karn from ZZ, not as she appeared in Zeta. While she is a more grounded character in Zeta, her over-the-top ZZ personality felt more fun for a crossover.

Cima Garahau is from Gundam 0083. She's here to complicate things further.

-X-X-X-

ROSTER STATUS  
-- DOGOS GEAR White Faction-

ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Garma Zabi (Commander) / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom  
Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis  
Shin Asuka / Impulse Witz Sou / Gundam Airmaster  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia Haman Karn / Qubeley

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra-

KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Loran Cehack

White Base

-- Black Faction  
Flay Allster / Strike Rouge (Surrendered)  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam-

KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider

-- IZUMO Neutral Faction  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam


	28. Chapter 28

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: At long last, the Izumo meets the Dogos Gear.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

A sea of wreckage glimmered against the black of space, a silvery testament to the all-too-recent destruction of White Base. At either end of this expanse of flotsam was positioned a capital ship, its occupants tense and wary. At long last, the Izumo had moved into sensor range of the Dogos Gear.

Both factions were ready both to parley and fight. On the Dogos Gear, Shin, Stellar, and newcomer Cima Garahau were ready to sortie in their Mobile Suits. The smaller Izumo crew couldn't afford to have pilots waiting in the hangar, but they also had faith that the ship's gleaming laminated armor would protect them long enough to allow a fast sortie.

All of the Izumo's crew members, even Domon Kasshu, had gathered on the bridge so they could participate when the Dogos Gear answered their call. Rondo Mina Sahaku presided in the captain's chair with Christina, Ed, and Amuro stationed at weapons, comms, and ops. Domon stood by the doorway, a silent guardian. His only task was to prevent the ship's untrustworthy passenger, Michelo Chariot, from doing anything to interrupt the proceedings.

The Dogos Gear had gathered all of its adult passengers save the standby pilots at the bridge. Garma Zabi had regained his composure well enough to take the captain's chair. Haman Karn sat at the chair nearest his right, while Johnny Ridden made a point of being in the seat nearest Garma's left. Gato and a largely-recovered Witz had the forward comms and ops stations.

"Signal incoming from the Izumo," said Gato.

"They're patching us through... it's showtime, people!" said Ed.

Rondo did not hesitate to begin the proceedings. "Greetings, Dogos Gear. I am Rondo Mina Sahaku, Ymir of the sovereign nation of Orb. I speak to you now as a captain of this ship and protector of its crew."

Garma's reply was composed, though his eyes were steely. "Greetings, Lady Sahaku. I am Garma Zabi, youngest son of Zeon's absolute sovereign Degwin Sodo Zabi. For what reason have you contacted our ship?"

"I wish to understand the circumstances of your crew, Lord Garma. As you are no doubt aware, our original intent was to reinforce you in White Base's battle with the Frost Brothers," said Rondo. "Clearly, that is no longer necessary."

Edward was bored by the formalities. He glanced toward Amuro and saw clear signs of recognition and wariness in his eyes. "See someone we oughta worry about?" Ed asked.

"Haman Karn." Amuro's voice was soft, but he seemed rattled.

Haman was happy to take the opportunity to interrupt Garma. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Amuro Ray. I've heard so much about you."

The breach of protocol annoyed Rondo. "Am I to take it this Haman Karn is a person of note in the Universal Century, Amuro?"

"I am the regent of Zeon's absolute sovereign Minerva Lao Zabi in the year UC 0088, Lady Sahaku," Haman answered. "Of course, I now defer all authority to her uncle, Lord Garma."

"Of course." Rondo couldn't help but smile. A woman with enough gall to wear a tiara in public probably didn't plan on deferring to anyone for long.

Garma did a much poorer job of concealing his annoyance than Rondo. "The situation is simple, Izumo. The Frost Brothers were killed in action along with the majority of their crew. The sole surviving crew member has surrendered. White Base was destroyed during the assault, so we have commandeered this ship for our own use."

Amuro was having some difficulty staying composed. Haman's presence on the ship set alarms off in his head. "What of Char Aznable?"

It was Garma's turn to lose his composure. "You should know that well enough!"

"Char was one of the first casualties, Captain Ray," Johnny said. "The circumstances of his death were extremely unusual... we were hoping you could explain them."

"Explain them?" Christina asked. Her expression was indignant. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"During the battle against the Frost Brothers, Captain Aznable opted to use a Mobile Suit that Captain Ray loaned him, the nu Gundam." Johnny's voice was dispassionate, his expression neutral. "It appeared to suffer a critical control failure at the moment of engagement, resulting in Captain Aznable's death."

"Critical control failure?" Ed sounded dubious.

"His controls locked up when the Frosts fired a warning shot at him!" Gato spat. "It seems highly unlikely to me that the Red Comet would be felled by a single shot otherwise."

Amuro pounded his control panel in frustration. "It wasn't the Mobile Suit, it was Paptimus Scirocco! I told Char he was in no condition to use nu's Psychoframe!"

"Scirocco!" Gato rose from his chair in righteous fury. "He's been dead for weeks, Captain Ray! You've picked a poor scapegoat for your treachery."

"Actually, Lieutenant Gato," Haman interrupted again. "Captain Ray's allegations are not quite so far-fetched."

"Commander Karn?" Gato calmed. He self-consciously returned to his seat before she continued.

"Lady Rondo, is your crew aware of the nature of Newtypism?" Haman asked. "It is my understanding that some of you are from worlds other than mine."

"We're well-acquainted with the Captain's abilities," Rondo said. "Please continue."

"Excellent." When Haman spoke, it was now clear she spoke to the men aboard the Dogos Gear bridge as much as the Izumo's crew. "While there are certain extraordinary abilities associated with Newtypism, not all of us are the same. In my era, Paptimus Scirocco was killed months ago by a young protege of Captain Char's, a Newtype called Kamille Biden..."

Amuro's expression darkened in a way that Ed and the others had never seen before. "Don't you dare--" he began.

Haman ignored him. "It is my understanding that Scirocco's spirit, in his death-throes, did terrible things to young Kamille's mind. I believe in my era he is bound to a wheelchair, incapable of so much as feeding himself--"

"That is ENOUGH!" Amuro had never, during the Beyonder's war game, lost his temper in front of anyone but Char. Now he was livid, face reddening, fists coming down painfully hard on the control console before him.

Both bridge crews appeared to be stunned-- save Haman, who simply looked smug. Rondo arched an eyebrow, wonder what Haman hoped to gain from this little performance.  
"-- regardless, in light of Kamille Biden's fate, it seems quite possible to me that Paptimus Scirocco's death could inflict grievous spiritual harm on Captain Char... certainly, enough to render him incapable of using any type of psycommu. Haman's expression was a mask of serenity. "And certainly Char would be reckless enough to ignore any signs of danger within."

Gato was clearly disturbed, beyond the deep sense of unease he felt whenever Newtypes were discussed at length. His thoughts returned to the battle, to the NT-1's final blow on Scirocco's damaged Messala. Had he misjudged the White Devil's hesitance then? "It is true that Captain Char chose to deal the final blow...."

"You are not absolved, White Devil." The pain in Garma's voice was deep. "I will never believe you did not play some role in Char's death! When the Beyonder is dealt with, then we will have a reckoning."

Rondo saw a chance to direct the conversation to more productive ends. "But until that time, Lord Garma, are you willing to consider us allies?"

"In these desperate circumstances... and against the Beyonder? Yes, Lady Sahaku, I am willing to consider such a thing." Garma closed his eyes. Though they had been in the Beyonder's world only a little over a month, he already seemed much older.

Christina and Edward shared a glance fraught with disbelief. This was the spoiled rich boy who'd been so insufferable on White Base? Rondo had no preconceived notions about Garma, so she merely found his demeanor pleasing.

"If we unify our crews as one, Lord Garma, we can put an end to this," said Rondo. "So that there can be no doubt of our unity, let us meet at a neutral location and sign a treaty, as representatives of the sovereign states of Zeon and Orb."

Garma, too, was pleased to deal with someone who understood the ways and means of diplomacy. "Very well, Lady Sahaku. Where and when is this meeting to take place?"

"May I suggest the DOME complex, Lord Garma?" Haman said. "We're already in geosynchronous orbit over it. The Izumo should not be far from it, either."

"DOME?" Ed asked.

Rondo glanced at Amuro, who shrugged. He had no idea what it was, either.

"We're not familiar with the location," said Rondo. She furrowed her brows. "You'll need to provide coordinates."

Johnny felt deeply uneasy. He glanced at Witz, whose expression was similarly uncomfortable. As far as Johnny knew, DOME was only dangerous in the hands of the Frosts because their Mobile Suits were custom-built to interface with it. Could Haman Karn intend to make use of it, somehow? Witz said it had something to do with Newtypes, though he didn't seem to understand any of its specifics.

Garma was, as ever, oblivious to all but his immediate concerns. "DOME is a technological complex on the moon. We'll transmit coordinates immediately."

"Excellent," Rondo said. "I shall attend Orb in my Mobile Suit with one of my crew as escort. I should prefer Captain Ray, if you find him acceptable, Lord Garma."

Garma scowled. "I will defer to your judgment, Lady Rondo. For my part, I suppose Commander Karn would be a fitting escort--"

Johnny didn't care much for that the idea of Garma alone with Haman for long at all. "Begging your pardon, Lord Garma, Lady Sahaku, but might I suggest allowing Mister Witz Sou accompany the two parties? He is a native of the After War timeline where the DOME facility originates. He could be a useful guide."

"Uh, Airmaster's still pretty jacked up..." Witz said.

"I'm sure we can get it in good enough shape for a short trip to the moon, Mister Sou," Johnny said.

Haman had no visible reaction to the suggestion, before Garma was speaking again. "That's an excellent idea, Commander Ridden. Do you consent, Lady Sahaku?"

She glanced at Amuro again, who nodded. "I consent, Lord Garma. I suggest we meet with all possible haste. Would it be possible to be at DOME within the hour?"

"Not if you want Airmaster there," Witz grumbled.

"It's possible," Garma said. "We'll see you then. Dogos Gear out."

"Izumo out," Rondo replied. The two ships ceased transmission.

On the Izumo, Christina visibly sighed in relief. "Well, at least they didn't open fire on us..."

Amuro glanced uneasily toward Rondo. "Are you sure taking me along is a good idea, Rondo? You saw how Garma feels about me."

"Harrelson and MacKenzie are most qualified to see to the bridge. It seems unwise to take Domon Kasshu while Michelo Chariot remains on the ship," Rondo said. "You are the only remaining option, Captain."

"They're going to have to get used to you anyway, Amuro," Christina said. "This is probably for the best."

Amuro said nothing more, but he looked far from happy about the situation. "Haman Karn," he muttered to himself. "Of all the people...."

-X-X-X-

Preparations for the the final treaty and truce between the two factions moved swiftly. As it happened, Witz was entirely correct about the extent of Airmaster's damage. It would've taken far longer than an hour to get the machine into enough shape for a space flight.

"I told ya so," Witz said. He'd dutifully gotten into his Normal Suit, but clearly expected that he wouldn't be going anywhere. "Guess you'll have to send Gato or somebody down instead, huh?"

"No. You're best-suited to this job," Johnny said. Witz had single-handedly saved Gato's life in the battle against the Frosts, defying the odds. If anyone could keep Garma safe from Haman Karn's predations, it would definitely be Witz. "We'll just have to think of another way."

"Unless we check the back and find out the Beyonder slipped us a passenger shuttle, Johnny, I think we're out of luck," Witz said.

"Could you pilot one of the other suits? We've got a bunch of spares." Shin's voice came to them from the Core Splendor's cockpit, where he appeared to be running a systems diagnostic.

"Spares? You mean..." Johnny glanced to his right. The Strike Rouge sat there, a grey shadow alongside the brilliantly reflective Hyaku Shiki. Neither unit had ever been deployed.

Witz seemed mildly terrified by the prospect of having to pilot either one. "Kid, what the hell! I'm not gonna learn how to pilot a machine from another universe in twenty minutes!"

"I wonder about that..." Johnny said. "The Zaku II was designed for green recruits to learn how to handle in less than a week. For a veteran like you, Mr. Witz... I wonder if twenty minutes is possible."

Witz was dubious. "Ehh... if the controls aren't too weird, maybe, but...."

"Here, let me show you." In a few minutes the two men were up in the cockpit of Johnny Ridden's custom Zaku II. The control panel's set-up at first seemed dauntingly different from Airmaster's, but Witz's grasp of the basics of Mobile Suit operation was completely sound.

After twenty minutes of basic coaching, Johnny watched as Witz took his first tentative steps in the Zaku II. Each movement grew smoother, until soon the Zaku II moved like a seasoned veteran was in its cockpit.

"Hey! This isn't bad at all when you get used to it," Witz announced over the external speakers. "It's kinda like a skinny Jenice... the tuning feels real loose to me, izzat normal?"

"It's a personal customization. You'll be glad for it in the field, joint lockup is a problem with Zakus on the standard settings." Most pilots tended to struggle with loosely-tuned Zakus, but Johnny had faith that Witz would be able to handle it after a brief adjustment. It would certainly have to be easier than piloting a unit through rapid shifts from a humanoid suit into a jet, anyway.

Seeing Witz handle his Zaku so well gave Johnny another idea. He approached Shin, who was idly watching the spectacle from the Core Splendor's open cockpit. "Shin, what could you tell me about that our spare Cosmic Era Gundam?"

Shin's nose wrinkled in distaste. "Strike Rouge? Eh. It's an Orb copy of a ZAFT suit the Alliance stole a couple years back. It handles okay, but it's nothing special compared to new stuff like Gaia or Impulse."

"Could a normal human pilot it?"

It was a confusing line of questioning to Shin. "On Natural OS settings, I guess. I mean... no offense, but you'd suck in it. The Natural OS is garbage, it uses pre-programmed motion data. You couldn't even walk it as good as your ZAKU." He gestured at the machine Witz piloted, which was still striding about the room.

Johnny scratched his chin. Lord Garma was a fine man, but not an especially proficient pilot... "No, I wouldn't be using it. I'll have the bridge while Lord Garma and Commander Karn are away. I was just thinking... if something happened, if Lord Garma could have a more heavily-armored unit than just a Zaku."

Shin pondered that. For a really bad pilot, the Natural OS might very well be an improvement. He wasn't sure if Garma actually was a terrible pilot, but it seemed highly probable, all things considered. "We can try it, I guess. Get him down here."

Garma was at first sorely displeased with the idea of being asked to pilot something that was perhaps not formally called a Gundam, but still for all intents and purposes a direct descendant of the White Devil. He would have turned the offer down outright, but he'd seen the incredible resiliency of the Cosmic Era's Phase Shift technology and that was enough to make him think twice.

"I suppose I'll give your scheme a try, Commander Ridden," Garma said, arms crossed. He was dressed in his Normal Suit and clearly a bit uncomfortable in it. The only time he'd worn it before during the Beyonder's war game was when White Base was destroyed.

Johnny lead Garma to Strike Rouge's cockpit, where Shin was glumly resetting the G.U.N.D.A.M. OS into Natural mode. Garma was not as apt a pupil as Witz, in part because the heavily computer-assisted controls favored by Cosmic Era machines bore very little resemblance to Zeon engineering.

Those very same computers proved marvelous at picking up the slack for Garma's lack of skill, though. Once he had a solid idea of which buttons to press and when to press the pedals, he could finally get Strike Rouge to move. It moved stiffly, with the unnatural gait of AI control, but it still moved. Johnny was relieved.

"Most satisfactory!" Garma said. He had warmed to the machine, despite his earlier hesitance. Using this machine couldn't be simpler. He could really believe he'd be a terror when he could unleash its weapons. "It's a shame about the colors, though." Strike Rouge's armor was a brilliant pink when the Phase Shift was activated.

"You can change the colors to whatever," Shin said. He reached over the back of Garma's cockpit seat and down to the keyboard so he could type, his fingers moving more rapidly than a normal human eye could follow. "Lemme make 'em normal, at least."

"No! I won't pilot some White Devil. Give me more heroic colors," Garma demanded.

"Uh. Heroic?" Shin asked.

"Try red," Johnny suggested.

"Ah! An excellent suggestion, Commander Ridden!" Garma said. "The very crimson of the Red Comet, Shin! That would suit this machine."

"Whatever," Shin sighed. A few flicks of the keyboard were all it took to shift Strike Rouge's colors to something more truly befitting its name. Shin found the effect monotonous, himself, but Garma seemed well-satisfied by it.

"I hate to interrupt, gentlemen, but shall we be going now?" Haman Karn's voice crackled over Strike Rouge's comms. In the hangar, her insect-like Qubeley had moved toward the launch ramp, its agility belying its bizarre proportions and ungainly midsection.

"Ah! As she says," Garma responded. He spared a moment for Johnny and Shin to slide down the machine's footline. The two men backed away. Strike Rouge's cockpit closed before it moved into launch position alongside Witz's Zaku II and the Qubeley.

Johnny still felt ill at ease as he watched the Mobile Suits begin to watch, one by one. He'd given Lord Garma every advantage he could conceive, but there was no way to know if it would ensure his survival in the Beyonder's war game.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

I can rarely take reader suggestions in reviews, mostly because the story has already been planned out.

A fan suggested Garma use Strike Rouge, though, and that was so perfect I wish I'd thought of it myself!

Updated to correct a continuity error and a hilarious spelling error from the first upload. I don't do this often, but these mistakes were pretty dumb. Check the reviews to see the original text!

Yes, Shin's backstory about Strike Rouge is wrong on purpose. ;)

-X-X-X-

ROSTER STATUS

-X-X-X-

-- DOGOS GEAR White Faction- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Garma Zabi (Commander) / Strike Rouge  
Johnny Ridden  
Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)  
Shin Asuka / Impulse Witz Sou / Zaku II Johnny Ridden CustomStellar Loussier / Gaia Haman Karn / QubeleyCima Garahau / Gebera TetraZaku II Garma Zabi CustomHyaku ShikiAirmaster (damaged)

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Loran CehackWhite Base (carrier)

-- Black Faction  
Flay Allster (Surrendered)  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider

-- IZUMO Grey Faction  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam


	29. Chapter 29

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: As the commanders depart to negotiate peace, a deadly new enemy bears its fangs. Michelo Chariot embarks on a scheme of long-planned revenge, aided by a turncoat aboard the Dogos Gear.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The diplomatic envoys were gone, en route to the DOME installation on the moon's surface. The Dogos Gear and the Izumo orbited quietly above the circus of the planet, within visual range of each other. The stillness of space seemed to permeate the ships.

The cheerful duo left in charge of the Izumo were happy for the downtime. Domon was happy to have his job of protecting the crew from Michelo made simpler. He could simply hang around Ed and Christina instead of having to track Michelo as he prowled through the ship's every nook and cranny, purely to annoy him.

The Dogos Gear's remaining crew were tense, restless. The teenagers still enjoyed each other's company, but often in companionable silence. Gato and Johnny were entirely quiet on the bridge, neither man inclined toward inconsequential chit-chat. Cima could tell she was unwelcome with either group, and kept to herself accordingly.

Cima had always felt marginalized by the Zeon powers that be, an outsider and scapegoat among the people that were supposedly her own. Being trapped in close quarters with men who represented the most disgustingly sanctimonious face of Zeon was unbearable. Cima intended to rebel, one way or another, it was just a matter of figuring out how.

She sat now in her Gerbera Tetra, still in her Normal Suit, quietly scanning known comms frequency ranges for signs of activity. Perhaps she could find a ship passing by, or a group of pirates to join. Cima was so focused on finding a mundane way off of the ship that she was entirely surprised when she made contact with someone much more unusual.

"Hey, who the hell's this? Why are you creepin' around the low end of the frequency range instead of just calling the stupid ship?"

"What stupid ship would that be?" Cima asked.

"The Izumo. What the hell else ships are out here, huh?"

"You say you're aboard the Izumo? But I don't remember hearing a voice like yours during the call earlier..."

"Of course you didn't. Michelo Chariot doesn't waste his time on garbage like that."

She overheard the man's laughter, rough and raucous. His name was familiar... wasn't he the one foe the two teams had failed to defeat? If so, he might be a far more interesting ticket off of the Dogos Gear than she would've dared hope for.

"If you are Michelo Chariot, what are you doing on board a ship full of Federation goons?" Cima asked.

"I've got a better question. Who are you, sweetheart, and what's your business on the Dogos Gear?"

She decided to play along. "Cima Garahau. The Beyonder sent me here not long ago, but I can't say I care much for the company."

"That so? Tell me, you interested in playing the Beyonder's war game to win?"

"What if I am?" asked Cima.

"You help me break heads until the Beyonder says we win."

"Confident, aren't you?" Cima asked. "But if you're really the Michelo Chariot I've heard about, you don't have any other allies. We'd be fighting over a dozen enemy pilots by ourselves. Why should I believe you could ensure my victory?"

"Because I'm a Gundam Fighter. That means there's exactly one pilot here who's got what it takes to give me a decent fight. The rest of 'em are trash."

Cima was a woman naturally drawn to confidence. Michelo Chariot had it to spare. Still, she had to be cautious until she had something more concrete to believe in. "I'd be a fool to take your word for it, you know. I don't know what a Gundam Fighter is, let alone how strong they are. Why don't you do something to demonstrate your power? If you're even half as good as you say, I'd be happy to follow you."

Michelo scratched his chin, smiling. He currently sat in the cockpit of his Core Lander, alone in the Dogos Gear's hangar. He'd meant only to make sure the area was quiet before he made his move, but... finding an accomplice on the other ship could make things a lot more interesting.

"You got a deal, sugar. Tell you what... you let me on board your ship, and I'll show you what being a Gundam Fighter means."

The offer was irresistible. She had no idea what Michelo might want aboard the Dogos Gear, but she was sure it'd teach Gato a thing or two. "It's a deal," she said. "I can have the hangar open and waiting for you in three minutes, with the bridge crew none the wiser."

Michelo opened his mouth to reply when he found himself interrupted by a third voice. It was male and completely unfamiliar. "Ah, but then where will you go when it's time to abandon the Dogos Gear?"

"Who is this?" Cima asked.

"An ally," said the stranger. "The Beyonder sent me here to help you... both of you, it seems. I can offer you the shelter of a strong ship staffed with a detachment of superb pilots and Mobile Suits. When your business aboard the Dogos Gear is done, won't you consider coming aboard?"

"You seem awful eager to give me a new goon squad, if you've really got all that crap. What's in it for you?" Michelo asked.

"Like yourself, I wish to win the Beyonder's war game. More than that, I want to see the full extent of your strength. I believe this is most likely if I support you in the coming battle."

Michelo chuckled at that. "You mean you'd rather kiss my ass than fight me? Smart man."  
The voice was silent. Cima wondered if their mysterious benefactor was choosing to let Michelo believe whatever he wished.  
"Transmit your coordinates to me and I'll be happy to join your ship's crew, once I've helped Michelo conclude his business here," Cima said. "I can't off the Dogos Gear soon enough."

"It is done. I'll send someone to help deal with pursuers. Consider it a show of good faith on my part."

"Yeah, maybe," Michelo said. "Who the hell are you, anyway? I like my goons to have names."

The voice chuckled. "Ah, of course. Forgive my lapse. My name is Treize. Treize Khushrenada."

"French!" Michelo spat. "You'd better not piss me off, little man."

"I think you won't find that necessary, Michelo Chariot." Treize's voice, at least, was unfazed by the threat.

-X-X-X-

Cima was one of those people who liked to think that she'd seen everything, but Michelo gave her a new personal standard for "bizarre." She had jammed the sensor line that lead to the bridge the way she'd done on countless ships, then opened the hatch so she could wait for some sort of Mobile Suit to appear. Instead of any sort of robot, she was treated to the impossible spectacle of a man's body flying through space, seemingly unharmed by the vacuum.

He landed inside the Dogos Gear's air shield, exhaling in the hard way of a man who's held his breath. Ice crystals rimed his hair and much of his body with frost. He flexed his fingers, no doubt checking to see that he still had them all, then stood up stiffly. Somehow, this man had propelled himself through space without even bothering to put so much as a Normal Suit!

"How on Earth..." she began to ask him.

Michelo grinned like a shark. He towered over Cima. "Held my breath and jumped. I've got good legs."

"What!" Cima exclaimed. "That's completely impossible! You should have asphyxiated, or the vacuum--"

"Gundam Fighters don't die easy."

"I should say not," Cima said. She believed that Michelo's stunt had to be a trick, but it clearly wasn't one he'd explain to her. "Tell me, how do you plan on making rendezvous with Treize if you don't have a Mobile Suit? Can Gundam Fighters just fly through space?"

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart. Just expect to be impressed," Michelo replied. His confidence was stunningly absolute. "Now, I've got a score to settle with a chick named Flay. You know where she is?"

Cima arched an eyebrow. What "business" could Michelo have with that miserable little girl? Well, there was one obvious possibility, but that went too far even for Cima's loose scruples to tolerate. "She's in the brig. But if all you've come aboard for is rough fun, I can't say I'm impressed."

Cima smoothly withdrew a sidearm from a thigh-mounted holster that Michelo hadn't even noticed. She pointed it at him. From the look in her eyes alone, Michelo could tell that she'd as soon fire at him as blink.

Michelo didn't find a common gun threatening, of course, but he admired the sentiment. Rondo had turned out to be a complete disappointment (and a total prig), but Cima already seemed like she could be a lot of fun.

Chuckling, he put a single finger on the tip of the barrel and lowered it. "No, no. Nothin' like that. She ain't ripe yet, far as I'm concerned." His voice became tinged with malice. "Thing is, she tried to kill me. Came pretty close, too. Nobody gets away with that."

Cima pondered. She briefly considered blowing his hand off. Why would Michelo lie about a little girl trying to kill him, though? Well, if she was old enough to try it, she was old enough to face the music. Gato'd be sure to fall on his sword over it, too.

"So long as we're clear on that point," Cima said, holstering her sidearm. "Follow me."

-X-X-X-

Cima made a point of scrambling each keypad before she opened it, so the bridge wouldn't be able to clearly trace their path. Cima had quickly discovered that the Beyonder's curious low-personnel redesign of the ship's systems made it possible to access core functions from virtually any terminal, which simply begged for abuse.

Michelo insisted on a detour after she told him about the kids that he'd likely find hanging around Flay's cell. He specifically wanted the infirmary, which baffled Cima at first. Upon arrival, Michelo leaned down and tore one of the dome-shaped sleeping pods out of the floor by its base, the twisting metal yielding easily to his strength.

Cima arched an eyebrow, both at Michelo's superhuman prowess and his apparent intentions. "It'd just be easier to kill her, you know. She's terribly stupid."

"She's a goon," said Michelo. "It ain't her job to think."

When they finally approached the brig area, Michelo made a point of setting the sleep pod outside the heavy door that lead into the main cell area. Cima winced at the loud clang, but Michelo seemed not to care at all about the people inside hearing.

"Hey! Is somebody out there?" a voice shouted from within. Cima could recognize it as Shin's just from the petulant tone. She had nothing personal against the boy, but she could see that Gato and Ridden were busy molding him into a tinier, more superhuman version of themselves. She wouldn't be sorry to see Michelo dismantle him.

"Come on, who the hell is it?" Shin's voice rose in agitation.

Michelo said nothing to him in response. Instead he furrowed his thick rooster-red brows and took in a single deep breath. In a split second, too fast for Cima's eyes to clearly follow, Michelo had shifted his weight to one leg and lashed out with the other. It moved so quickly, so forcefully, that it appeared to shine as it tore through the air.

Michelo's foot landed squarely on the center of the door plate, ripping it out of the wall. Cima heard Shin scream as the plate slammed into him, hurling him down the hallway.

"Shin!" Stellar cried out, running out of the only cell whose doors stood open.

Cima already had her sidearm out. She gestured toward Flay's prison. "Help yourself."

"Remember me?" Michelo bellowed. His force was impossibly loud, a steely echo his voice ringing impossibly loud down the metal hallway.

Flay's voice rose behind Stellar. It was the wordless sound of pure terror.

Stellar didn't entirely understand what was happening. She could see danger in Michelo's face, but wasn't Cima their friend?

"You shouldn't be here!" Stellar shouted at Michelo. "Stop or Stellar will fight you!"

Stellar had barely finished speaking before Michelo was upon her. He grabbed Stellar by her uniform lapels and flung her over his shoulder. Her weight was nothing to him, even with one hand.  
She skidded painfully on her back along the metal flooring, coming to a stop just short of where Cima stood. The older woman strode forward and lowered her sidearm, pointing it at Stellar's head.

"You move, you die," Cima said. "It's up to you, really."

Cima had hoped to be intimidating, but the reaction she got was far more than she ever would have expected. In a matter of seconds, Stellar degenerated in a insane mass of tears. She writhed on the ground, pulling at her hair and screaming like an animal.

"Stellar doesn't want to die! Stellar doesn't want to die!"

"... well, that was unexpected." Cima slid her hands under the girl's armpits and began dragging her toward the pod. Stellar's body had gone entirely limp, her momentary spasms aside. Cima wondered exactly what she'd done to prompt this reaction. It seemed like a useful thing to be able to do again later.

Michelo, meanwhile, moved toward Flay with slow confidence. "I'll give you some credit, girlie. The poisoned wine trick, that was good. I didn't see that coming."

He stopped less than a foot away from her body. Flay had fallen silent, too overwhelmed with fear to make a sound. "But I bet you didn't see this coming, either."

Flay cracked when Michelo hoisted her into the air, one-handed, as easily as he'd manhandled Stellar. She began sobbing frantically and screaming again, a sound that Michelo found very gratifying. "No! Get away from me!" Flay screamed. "Stellar! Shin!"

"Keep screaming!" Michelo laughed. "Nobody's gonna save you--"

He stopped as he felt an uncomfortable twinge in his side. He lashed his foot out with inhuman speed, before the blade could get dangerously deep into his flesh. Shin screamed as his body flew down the hallway again, but this time he landed in a roll and managed to pull himself up to his feet more quickly. The knife skittered farther down the hallway, useless.

Michelo shark-smiled again. He could see that the kid was angry beyond words, hatred and a furious need burning in his red eyes. Michelo dimly remembered hearing something about how this kid was supposed to be tougher than a regular human. Good, he could send a message with that. If it was true, anyway.

He glanced back toward Flay, who was desperately crying Shin's name. "Got yourself a boyfriend, huh? Gonna be your knight in shining armor, right?" Michelo cackled.

"Put her down," Shin said. His voice was terse. Michelo could smell the fear lurking underneath all of his bravado.

"Sure. Think you can catch her?" Michelo abruptly heaved Flay's body as high into the air. His leg flashed out again, a rising ax-kick that created a perfect blade of shimmering energy and vacuum force.

Flay's body was heavy enough that it dropped to the ground no more than a meter from Michelo. Her head flew much farther before rolling to a stop just short of Shin's feet. A spray of fresh blood lined the walls in a perfect trajectory arc, as more spread across the floor. Flecks of it sprayed Shin's face and uniform.

"Guess not." Michelo grinned, and waited.

Shin felt the heat before he saw the telltale red on his hands. Flay's voice, crying his name, rang in his ears. Time slowed. He spent an eternity rotating his hand, looking at the red stain on his palm. Flay's voice became Stellar's, became his sister's. The world fell into black and red, his hand a fist.

He charged Michelo head on, screaming. He would've torn the man apart with his bare hands if he'd only been able.

Michelo was more than ready for him. He threw a single punch, holding back little. His fist collided with the side of Shin's face. It was the kind of blow that, under normal circumstances, would leave a man with nasty black eye. Michelo punched hard enough to crush an ordinary man's skull.

Shin's was considerably tougher, though the force of the blow still stopped him cold. He slid off his feet and down to the bloody floor. Shin's blood mingled with the mass of red that was already there, streaming from his right socket. He tried to get back up, but he couldn't seem to make his body cooperate.

Michelo was pleased with the boy's struggling. It meant he wasn't dead yet. Michelo strode toward him, sure-footed despite the crimson pools, and squatted down by his side. "Good news, kid. What's between us ain't personal, so I'm gonna cut you a deal. I'm not gonna finish you off, and you're gonna deliver a message for me. You understand?"

Shin grunted. Good enough for Michelo.

"You tell the King of Hearts about what I did here." Michelo's voice became a low growl. "You tell all of Domon Kasshu's pals just how good he did his job."

Michelo turned and left Shin there, finished with him. Shin screamed at him, incoherent in his fury, but incapable of rising to his feet. He was disoriented, his vision blurry and uncertain. He couldn't seem to open his right eye at all.

Cima waited for Michelo just outside the brig, leaning against Stellar's sleep pod. The girl had fallen unconscious after Cima had maneuvered her into it. Cima felt that was no small feat in itself.

She arched an eyebrow as Michelo took a minute to kick the blood off his feet. It sprayed the walls in a display that Cima found tasteless, if not truly ghastly. Her own misdeeds had hardened her stomach a long time ago.

"Are you quite finished?" Cima asked, straightening her posture.

Michelo hefted Stellar's sleep pod up and grinned. "For now."

Cima glanced down the hallway at Shin, who had become something of a blood-soaked spectacle. "It would be kinder to just let me shoot him, you know."

"We'll have a lot more fun if you don't, sweetheart." Michelo was already heading away from the brig, retracing their steps toward the hangar.

Cima paused. She imagined the look on Gato's face as he beheld the atrocity that occurred on his watch, while he was utterly oblivious. She thought about the quiet, self-righteous tears he'd shed over what remained of his little red-coated pet.

"I suppose you're right," she smiled.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Michelo's death-defying breath-holding space-jump was inspired by two things: Quess's much shorter space jump in Char's Counterattack and the sorts of super-stunts you see in G Gundam director Yasuhiro Imagawa's very similar Giant Robo: The Animation.

At points in G Gundam we see characters pulling off stunts like kicking buildings in half. Given that a "serious" Gundam show is willing to allow a character to survive for a few moments in space, it seemed that a physics-defying Gundam Fighter might be able to pull off something more spectacular.

Research I did on surviving in the vacuum of space suggested a normal human could do it for about 90 seconds without a supply of air and much longer if breathing wasn't necessary. That leaves the extreme cold to consider, but I figured Michelo could handle that through his probable mastery of qi.

Treize Khushrenada is, of course, from Gundam Wing. I planned him (and a lot of this arc) from the story's beginning, so it's been pretty fun seeing all the reviews calling for Wing representation. I waited so long because Wing, I felt, needed some special treatment if I was going to make it work.

To that one reviewer who hated Wing... sorry! There's just no way I can do something like this and ignore Wing completely. It's too important. So, suffice to say that if there's some other important show I seem to be ignoring... well, you might just need to be patient.

-X-X-X-

-- DOGOS GEAR White Faction-

ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Garma Zabi (Commander) / Strike Rouge

Johnny Ridden

Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)

Shin Asuka / Impulse

Witz Sou / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

Hyaku Shiki

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Loran Cehack

White Base

-- ??? Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / ???

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster

-- IZUMO Grey Faction

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam


	30. Chapter 30

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The commanders meet on the moon and attempt to unravel the secrets of DOME and the Satellite System, with terrible consequences.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The surface was hot beyond all reason at this time of lunar day. Within the DOME facilities, though, shielding kept the environment cool enough that it would be bearable for humans to live and work in. At night, when the temperature of the moon became unbearably cold, the buildings would offer the same protection.

The DOME base was apparently uninhabited, though that came as no surprise. As their machines docked one by one into the automated hangar space, Amuro couldn't quite shake the feeling that they weren't alone on the base. Something else was out there, not a person but something vast and dormant.

The "negotiations" began in the first room they found that had a proper table and chairs bolted to the floor. There wasn't much to negotiate, though. Rondo and Garma appeared to be in perfect agreement on all substantial topics. There was nothing for the others to do but stand off to the side and eye each other uncomfortably.

The base had a breathable atmosphere, so the two potentates sat with their helmets off, pouring over a paper document Rondo had swiftly prepared.

"So what of this plan to attack the Beyonder you've mentioned, Rondo?" Garma asked.

"It's not really a plan, more of a manifesto," Rondo said. She picked up an ink pen from the set she'd brought along with her for the signing. "It is Captain Ray's conviction that the Beyonder should be considered the real enemy of all involved in this miserable affair."

Garma's eyes flicked up at Amuro, expectantly. The other man tugged nervously at the neck of his Normal Suit. "I've considered the idea at some length... it stands to reason that if the Beyonder's power is keeping us here, then dealing with the Beyonder directly is the easiest way to return home."

"How do you propose we find the Beyonder, Captain Ray?" Haman asked.

"I don't know. I don't even know if it's possible."

"And we won't find out so long as our only priority is slitting each other's throats," Rondo finished. "In fact, I'd guess the Beyonder is counting on that."

She signed her name alarmingly well, for all that her hands were trapped in the thick layers of her Normal Suit. Garma took the pen with some trepidation, suddenly afraid that he might be on the verge of embarrassing Zeon for all eternity with bad penmanship.

Garma spoke to try and ease his nerves. "So you think the Beyonder's just doing all this for his own amusement? That he could send us back at any time?"

"Nothing else makes sense," said Rondo. "The Beyonder doesn't place us in logical groupings and assigns us highly illogical allies. It's as if he's setting us up so that conflict is inevitable."

Garma signed slowly, his ink line soaking a thick black into the paper. Now the forces of Orb and the Principality of Zeon were committed to each other until such time that the Beyonder was defeated, the Gundam War ended, or both forces annihilated to the last man in the Beyonder's strange pocket dimension.

"If our circumstances are so dangerous, then it seems we should consider practical matters first. Could the Izumo provide resources to repair our Mobile Suits?" Haman asked.

"Not currently, but our first priority after this meeting is concluded should be a search for lunar settlements," Rondo said. "Captain Ray's said something about the moon being an industrial center in the Universal Century."

"That's quite true," Haman said. "If Anaheim had a presence here, it would solve a lot of our problems."

"So, we're done, yeah? Back to the ship?" Witz asked.

"I believe there is one further thing we should concern ourselves with here before we move on," Haman said. "Since my arrival, I have made a point of studying the history of the Gundam War to date. In the last engagement, the Frosts remotely activated something in this installation that gave them command of an enormous power."

"The Satellite Launcher?" Witz asked.

"Yes," Haman said. "I think we cannot afford to ignore such a power if we truly intend to challenge the Beyonder."

"We can't use it," Amuro said. His tone was absolute.

Haman laughed. "That's pure foolishness, Captain Ray. In these dire straits, we cannot afford to give up any advantage."

Witz was looking more uncomfortable by the second. "You can't do anything with DOME unless you've got the right weapon, anyway. It's just a big long-range microwave transmitter. I don't see a point in messing around up here."

Rondo frowned. "How common are Satellite Cannons, Mr. Witz? Is it possible we could face some other enemy from your timeline that was equipped with one?"

"Well... yeah," Witz had to concede. "They're not common, but the Frosts didn't have the only one."

"Then we can hardly leave a viable power source for such a weapon behind us," Garma said. "We should take the time to investigate DOME while we're here. We can make decisions about using it or not using it later."  
"I'm forced to agree," Rondo said. "Mr. Witz, can you guide us to the facility?"  
Witz thought of the great white domed building that stood at the center of the base, DOME's obvious nerve center. A sense of dread pooled in the pit of his stomach. He really wanted to leave.  
"I guess I can," he said.

-X-X-X-

The atmosphere remained breathable, if stale, as the group moved deeper into the DOME complex. The passageways they moved through now were dark and felt long-forgotten.

They stopped at a pair of double-doors with a keypad security lock to one side. "This is probably the final threshold," Witz said. "You guys still sure you wanna do this?"

"Absolutely," Garma said.

Witz sighed and began fiddling with the keypad. The door did turn out to be locked, but it used one of the standard security codes that Vultures had cracked a long time ago. You couldn't very well loot Mobile Suits from old bases if you couldn't get into them, after all.

The doors slowly opened. The area beyond was a great domed chamber, like the inside of a planetarium. White metal crowned polished steel walls. There were other doors that clearly led to other parts of the installation set into the walls, but here there was a true sense of being at the base's nerve center.

The travelers spread out into the room. Garma examined the walls, searching or something like a control panel. "It seems like there should be something here, but...."

"It's here," Haman said. Her eyes were turned upward. "It's sleeping, but..."

"It?" Rondo asked. "Captain, what does she mean?"

"There's a presence here," Amuro said. "I don't know how else to explain it."

"Is it hostile?" Rondo asked.

"It's hard to say..." Amuro paused, brows knit.

Rondo looked at him more carefully.

"... it's not," Amuro said. "It's not. But...."

What happened next was like being caught in a psychic explosion.

-X-X-X-

It wasn't clear what, exactly, had prodded DOME awake. It announced its presence through a pure transmission of image and sensation. DOME's thoughts poured down on its guests in a startling torrent, one idea rapidly displacing another.

What DOME attempted to convey to them was the essence of its being. Men in white loomed over it-- him-- when his form was still human, disassembling him, perfectly aware that he was still conscious. Machines became part of his body, until his presence extended over an enormous gathering of humans, over the moon, over the Earth itself.

Wars began, fought for reasons too small for DOME to understand. He was given charge of a great and terrible power, the operation of the Satellite System. The Mobile Suits that could use it became legion, drones bound to single Newtype pilots used to proliferate the Satellite Canons more and more. Each pilot's face was etched into DOME's vast memory. He had loved them all, in his way.

DOME also remembered their deaths. DOME remembered every life lost from his earliest use as a weapon on to the day when he shut down and entered standby mode. He remembered every settlement destroyed and every ship shot down. He even remembered the day the colonies rained down on Earth, when most of the human race died.

It wasn't simply the fact of death that DOME remembered. To such a powerful Newtype, death was the final transformation of human existence, the instrumentality of man. DOME recall the spirits that snuffed out entirely, too weighted with sin to move forward, as well as the shining souls that made their way into the sea of light that lay just beyond Oldtype perceptions of the universe.

All of this was beyond the limit of Oldtype perception, but DOME was desperate to make them understand. He lacked conventional ears to hear a scream and his own pain was too deep to sense the squirming of an overtaxed nervous system. There was only one voice strong enough to cut through the wave of DOME's own experience.

"You can't do this to Oldtypes, they can't handle it!" Amuro shouted, with voice and mind. "We have to find another way!"

-X-X-X-

The tide of sensation stopped. Haman still stood, blinking suddenly as the tide of information ceased.

Rondo had fallen to one knee, bracing herself heavily against the wall. "Oldtype? That's such an ugly-sounding term..." Her voice was labored, but her dignity intact.

Witz was slumped against the wall, eyes closed and unmoving. Garma wiped the blood that was oozing from his nose and shook Witz's shoulder with concern. "Mr. Witz? Mr. Witz, are you quite alright?"

Witz opened his eyes. He had at some point begun crying, but he seemed composed enough now. "Yeah, I'm still here."

Garma paused. "Was that thing we saw... that Earth on fire...."

"Yeah. That's home." Witz sighed.

It was a horror impossible for Garma to grasp. "But... how can that be? What could you have to live for, let alone fight for...."

"I want my family to be okay. If that means protectin' Newtypes, savin' the world..." he shrugged. "... what else could I do, huh?"

Garma had no answer to Witz's question. He quietly rose to his feet, then offered the other man his hand. Witz took it, gratefully.

"The Beyonder's reward could save your world, couldn't it?" Haman asked. Her voice was louder than it needed to be. She glanced up at the interior dome, waiting for a response.

"No. I'm afraid you're entirely mistaken." The voice that spoke was Amuro's, but it was somehow not entirely his. He made eye contact with no one as he spoke, instead watching himself flex the fingers of his right hand curiously.

Rondo felt an immediate sense of alarm. "Captain?" she asked.

"Ah?" Amuro glanced at her as if he'd never seen her before. There was a pause, then a reassuring smile, as if he'd just realized he could do that. "He's fine. Our compatibility is exceptionally high and his ego has amazing integrity... I've never been able to do this before."

"... DOME?" Rondo betrayed a rare display of open surprise.

"Yes. It was Amuro's idea, so... I hope you won't be upset," said DOME, speaking through Amuro's body.

"How fantastic..." Haman's excitement was openly written on her face. "You have a power beyond that of any Newtype that has ever lived before! DOME, you must help us."

"Commander Karn!" Garma said. "It's unseemly to make such open demands of our host. We haven't even asked his name, it can't possibly be DOME..."

"It's short for 'Depths Of Minds Elevating'..." DOME mused through Amuro's mouth. "The basis of my thought data and psychic signature was ancient pilot data, but I couldn't offer you First Newtype's name. Addressing me as DOME is sufficient for now."

"You're a copy of a living being? That's horrible..." Garma said.

"That's typical, if this Federation is anything like our Alliance," Rondo sniffed. "DOME, I hope you intend to give Captain Ray back to us at some point."

"Oh! Yes, of course. This was just so I could deliver my message without hurting anyone by accident. I'm sorry, I forgot how to communicate with conventional humans..."

"It's fine," Haman interrupted. "What's this message you have for us?"

"Well, it's for you," DOME said, pointing Amuro's finger at Haman. "I just wanted to say... I'm sorry, but I can't let you have what you want, Haman Karn. I wanted you to understand why, though."

"What I want?" Haman asked. She tried to speak innocently, but all eyes in the room were upon you.

"You came here with intent to commandeer the Satellite System for your own personal use, one way or another," DOME said. "I cannot let you do that."

"Commander Karn!" Garma exclaimed.

"That's... ridiculous," Haman said. "Besides, your objections made no sense. Why would you give your power to the Frosts and not us? We are victims of the Beyonder, who seek only to be free of his grasp."

"Had I not come to this world in standby mode, I wouldn't have let the Frosts or any other power use me, either. I suppose I should thank you for awakening me with your presence," DOME said. "Haman, you are from a time that is long before the Seventh Space War. I tried to show it to you so you could understand the consequences of your desires. Did it mean nothing to you?"

"It meant your previous commanders were fools!" Haman said. "They misused your power and let it run out of their control. I will never make that mistake, DOME, you must believe me. A new war is raging in the stars around us and we need your power to end it!"

"... you really didn't understand it, did you? These Oldtypes understood me better..." DOME's disappointment was evident in Amuro's voice. "No, Haman Karn. Leave this place and fight with your own strength."

"You are a weapon of war! It is your duty to fight when you are called to action!" Haman shouted in frustration.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Witz shouted. "He destroyed the world! He showed you what it looked like when he did it! If he just wants to go shut himself down, then let 'im!"

"I solidly concur, Commander Karn," Garma said. "There is no danger of universal destruction in our conflict now. We are irresponsible if we introduce it ourselves."

Rondo cracked her gloved knuckles, quietly. "And you're clearly not to be trusted with any sort of power over anything, Haman Karn."

"Please. Just go. Let me shut down and bring no further harm to anyone," DOME said.

Haman was so furious she was shaking. What she had seen in DOME's vision of the apocalypse was the world she could remake in her own image, the power to force a stupid and obstinate humanity to do as she wished or die. It was too near her grasp for her to simply turn around and walk away from it.

One of the conditions of the agreement was that all parties were to come to the signing unarmed. She had complied with this, superficially, her main belt holster empty. Instead, she had found a much smaller sidearm that used old-fashioned bullets instead of modern high-frequency laser pulses.

This is what she pulled from a utility pouch on her belt, in a single swift motion. She leveled the gun at Rondo's center mass first, firing. Then she aimed at Garma and fired again.

Haman was a well-trained pilot but not a crack shot. Her first shot at Rondo was low, burying itself in the woman's upper thigh. Her second shot at Garma missed entirely, because Witz moved to shove the other man out of the way. Witz crumpled to the ground after that, bleeding from his side.

"Traitor!" Garma shouted at her.

Haman took her time to aim more carefully at Garma. She didn't manage to hit him in the chest, but did score a shot directly to his abdomen. Garma sank down with the others after that.

DOME's pure incomprehension was written across Amuro's face. "Why did you do that?" he asked.

She was breathing heavily as she leveled the gun at Amuro's body. "I'll kill him, too. I will kill all of these people if you don't fulfill my destiny, DOME!"

"Why do you think hurting these people will change my mind? Consider this." A thought suddenly filled her mind, an image of an enormous Mobile Suit sailing into the lunar sky above the DOME installation. It wielded a Satellite Cannon of its own, one it aimed down at the white dome where she now stood with pinpoint accuracy.

"What you see is my G-Bit in action, Haman Karn. I will not hesitate to fire. These people have nothing to lose in death, Haman. They are bright souls that will easily pass beyond. But you...." Amuro's voice became very grave. "... your soul is heavy with ignorance, with resentment, with hatred. If you die now, Haman, you will be completely undone. Is this what you want?"

Haman's arm began to shake as DOME addressed her, because she knew he was right. In the moment when she was forced to contemplate an immediate and violent death, she saw only a black void before her. She knew she had risked everything and lost. DOME would not accept her and neither would the crews of the Izumo and Dogos Gear. She threw down the gun with a frustrated scream and began to run, retreating back to her Mobile Suit.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

-- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Garma Zabi (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Strike Rouge

Johnny Ridden Anavel Gato / GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)

Shin Asuka / Impulse

Witz Sou (Casualty) / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam

Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

Hyaku Shiki

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Loran CehackWhite Base

-- ? Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / ?

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster


	31. Chapter 31

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Michelo Chariot's terrible deeds come to light. When pursuers attempt to bring him to justice, a horrifying new adversary blocks their path.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

It wasn't clear that anything was amiss on the Izumo until Christina felt her seat shift slightly beneath her. For a moment, she wondered if it was her imagination. A nagging feeling drove her to check the Izumo's sensors. She saw a blinking dot moving away from the ship, as if they'd just launched a Mobile Suit.

Ed was sitting next to her. Domon was leaning against the wall near the bridge's entrance. That could only mean...

"Michelo's escaping!"

Ed jerked upward. "What?"

"A Mobile Suit just left the Izumo's hangar! Who else could it be?"

Domon's feet were heavy on the metal floor as he ran to Christina's side. The evidence on the sensor display was undeniable. "Damn him! I'll launch and bring him back before he can cause any trouble."

Ed groaned. "We should've seen this coming. Of course he'd scram once Rondo was off the ship, she was the one he had the deal with..."

Domon was on his way out of the bridge when the comms console to Christina's right chirped.

"It's a call from the Dogos Gear..." she said.

Domon stopped in his tracks and glanced back.

Ed grimaced. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Christina patched the call through, regardless.

What filled the Izumo's forward screen was an image of the Dogos Gear's bridge in chaos. Johnny appeared to have made the call. In the background, Gato was in a shouting match with Shin, whose condition was horrifying.

Blood streamed down the right side of the young man's face and neck, becoming a wet dark splotch on his red coat. Something was wrong with Shin's right eye, but it was hard to see just how bad it was.

"You're wasting time! Just get me ready to launch!" he screamed.

"Mister Asuka, the launch catapult is locked! The enemy is still on this ship and you're in no condition to pilot anything!"

"I'm a coordinator! I can do it!"

Johnny spared a glance at the row behind him, then focused his attention on the screen. "Izumo, we have an emergency."

"Michelo's already aboard your ship?" Domon shouted. For the first time Ed or Christina could remember, genuine alarm was etched on Domon's face.

"- yes," Johnny was clearly surprised by Domon's reaction, but he let it go for now. "Commander Garahau's turned traitor and let him aboard. They've murdered Miss Allster and taken Miss Loussier hostage. I beg you, Izumo, if you have any manpower to spare-"

The Izumo skeleton crew wore their horror on their faces. Christina snapped out of it first. "He's going to escape! There's a Mobile Suit heading toward the Dogos Gear right now!"

"LET ME LAUNCH!" Shin screamed from the back.

The Dogos Gear visibly rattled onscreen. Control consoles in front of Johnny began screaming the sorts of alarms that accompanied damage reports.

"He's summoned Neros Gundam to force his way open!" Domon shouted. He clenched a fist tightly, so tight it was painful even to look at. "Dogos Gear! I, Domon Kasshu, am on my way!"

Gato cursed. "Dammit! Commander Ridden, we have no choice! We may as well let Mister Asuka have his wish. I'll take command of this operation."

"... I'm going, too." Ed stood up, expression grim.

"Ed!" Christina said. "Are you sure? You know this ship better than I do. If someone accompanies Domon, it should be me..."

Ed put his hands on Christina's shoulders. He'd never touched her since their first meeting on the White Base, long ago, perhaps out of embarrassment. Now, he was nothing but earnest.

"Christina, I love you to pieces, but the fact is that I'm an ace and you're a test pilot. If I sat on my ass here and let you sortie I'd be a poor excuse for a soldier and a poor excuse for a man."

Christian scowled. She preferred Ed being silly to this sort of posturing, especially since she couldn't argue with his logic.

"- fine, but... you'd better come back." She tried not to sound emotional.

Ed picked up on the miniscule quaver in her voice. He grinned. "Want to give me a kiss good-bye?"

"Don't press your luck!" Christina flounced away from him and primly sat back down at her ops station. "Just come back in one piece."

Johnny didn't look happy. He could sense the situation spiraling out of control, but he had no way to stop it now. "Alright, I'll see to launching Impulse and... the GP-02 is in no condition to fight..."

"I believe I'll be able to use the Hyaku Shiki well enough," Gato said. "It's advanced, but similar enough to the Mobile Suits I know how to use."

"Very well. Be careful getting to your suits, I can't tell if Chariot and Garahau have launched yet. Izumo, I'm going to close the channel now, in case the lunar away team calls."

"Of course. Good luck, Dogos Gear, I'll send any new information I find your way."

Christina's heart was heavy as she closed the comms channel. She had a bad feeling about this, too.

-X-X-X-

Cima had doubted Michelo's ability to summon his Gundam "from anywhere," but it appeared to be legitimate. Once Neros Gundam crashed through the Dogos Gear's hangar wall, they were able to quickly escape the ship.

She was quite happy to be flying her Gerbera Tetra freely once more, but not pleased that she'd apparently have to deal with any pursuers. Michelo was using Neros to haul Stellar's Gaia Gundam, with Stellar's inert body and sleeping pod stuffed inside.

They both expected pursuit. This is where they expected their mysterious benefactor Treize Khushrenada to make good on his promises of support.

Michelo's voice ripped across the comms frequencies. "Treize! You loud-mouthed bastard, where's that help you promised?"

Treize responded after a few moments' delay. "He's preparing to sortie. Begin heading toward the coordinates I'm transmitting to you now. The sooner you're aboard my ship, the better."

"He?" Michelo spat. "You're givin' us one guy?"

"He'll be more than enough."

"He'd better be." Michelo cut the call off, clearly annoyed.

"We should speed up. There are Mobile Suits on the move from the Izumo and Dogos Gear," Cima said.

"How many?"

"Four."

Michelo chuckled to himself, a vicious edge to the laughter. "Then I guess we'll find out how good Treize's man is..."

-X-X-X-

It wasn't long before the pursuit forces from the Izumo and Dogos Gear fell into formation with each other. It was the first sortie for Domon's Shining Gundam, which didn't look like anything terribly unusual on the surface. Ed's Sword Calamity was far more menacing, with its enormous anti-ship swords strapped to its backpack rack.

Shin had picked Impulse's Force Silhouette and streaked ahead of the other units. So many bandages were wrapped around his ruined right eye that it practically added padding to his helmet. Shin didn't care, focused solely on his goal of trying to find and defeat Michelo before the man got away with murder.

Gato, despite his bold words on the bridge, was uncomfortable in the Hyaku Shiki. The control layout was familiar enough, but it was tuned so loosely that sometimes he could feel the machine getting away from him. Its panoramic cockpit was intimidating as much as liberating, offering a terribly acute sense of his personal insignificance in the vastness of space.

"Ah, shit." Ed hailed the others. "Guys, we may have a big problem here. Sword Calamity's picking up signs of a carrier-class ship up ahead."

"Can you identify it?" Gato asked.

"Of course not. But what you want to bet those two are set to rendezvous with some new bunch of jackasses the Beyonder sent to help 'em out?"

Gato gritted his teeth. "That's a sucker bet. We've got to cut them off before they get any closer! Gentlemen, Shin is unreliable right now, given the givens, but I hope I can count on your cooperation."

"You're the boss, boss," Ed shrugged.

"I am no soldier," Domon said. "But I will do what I can."

"If we're gonna get a welcoming party from that ship, it'll probably hit in a few minutes," Ed said.

"It doesn't matter!" Shin's voice was the first sign he'd even listened to any of the conversation. "We just have to catch them before we get there!"

-X-X-X-

Cima had to zoom her Gerbera Tetra's video feed several times to make out the shape of the carrier that awaited them. It looked like nothing she'd ever seen before, an enormous black wedge that blocked out the stars.

Michelo was focusing on data from Neros's rear cameras. "Looks like we've picked up quite a following... this ought to be interesting!"

Cima attempted to hail the ship. "If you're going to do something about this, Mister Khushrenada, I would think now's the time!"

Against the dark of space, a hatch began dropping open in the underside of the ship. Light streamed forth from it.

The voice that responded to Cima was new. "Proceed to dock. I will sortie to drive off pursuit." It was a male voice, but younger than Treize's. It had a bizarre coldness to it, as if utterly void of feeling.

"You're Treize's man, eh?" Michelo asked. "I hope you know what you're getting into, punk. That's the King of Hearts out there."

"It doesn't matter."

Gato's voice broadcast over the open comms channels. "Attention, unidentified carrier! This is Colonel Gato of the Delaz Fleet! We are in pursuit of fugitives who have kidnapped one of our crew! Do not assist them, or we will be forced to assume you are hostile!"

The voice's response to Gato was blunt. "They are our allies. Fall back now or all of you will die."

As the Gerbera Tetra and Neros angled for the open dock, they could see something streak out from the ship and blaze toward them. It was a crimson Mobile Armor moving at phenomenal speed, perhaps at the limit of what a human pilot could handle. It was birdlike- or perhaps dragonlike- in outline, two "heads" jutting out of its winged back and a serrated tail trailing behind it.

"What the hell is THAT?" Ed shouted.

Impulse charged it. At that moment, Shin was oblivious to any idea of preserving his own personal safety or even his suit's battery. The deuterium beam equipment had proven impossible to salvage from White Base. Even if it had been, Impulse was much too far from the Dogos Gear to receive a signal.

Shin's gambit was to use the unknown Mobile Armor's speed against it, raising his beam saber to try and gut the machine as it passed overhead. The red Mobile Armor twisted easily out of his reach, raking Impulse's back with its long "tail." There was a visible crackle of energy as the tail made contact with Impulse and ripped pieces off of its backpack.

Had Impulse been a conventionally constructed modular Mobile Suit, more along the lines of the Strike, Shin might have been able to minimize the damage by jettisoning his backpack module. The Force Silhouette could not be detached so easily. Explosions blossomed from its back, blowing off its saber arm and punching through to parts of the Core Splendor.

Shin was lucky, in that his cockpit wasn't directly compromised. After the shaking stopped, though, a simple glance at his main console told him that he was doomed. The Mobile Armor's attack had torn off both of his main maneuvering thrusters and slammed the suit's electrical systems with a massive discharge. The main batteries were badly damaged, dying. He could see Impulse's battery levels dwindle in a horrible second to 20%, 5%, nothing.

The emergency auxiliary systems came on, offering him maybe twenty minutes of environment life support. His Normal Suit might have another ten minutes of air in its emergency supply. All of his audio systems and non-essential lights winked out, leaving his audio band to play all unencrypted chatter at him. He could send a transmission, but why bother? He was surely dead, his Mobile Suit rendered useless by a single attack.

-X-X-X-

"A heat rod..." Gato said. "That Mobile Armor's tail is an enormous heat rod!"

"We've got to pull it off Shin, the kid's a sitting duck!" Ed shouted.

"... any unit can be defeated with proper tactics. We'll surround and destroy it!" Gato said.

"I'll distract it so you two can get in position," Domon said. Shining Gundam's rockets flared.

As the Izumo's remaining forces closed on it, the Mobile Armor wheeled around and began to spiral upwards. Its body began to transform, even as it continued moving at a breakneck speed. The Mobile Armor unfolded into a demonic-looking Gundam, its armor uniformly the same dark violet-crimson. The heat rod unfolded into a long whip that extended from a shield-buckler mounted on the evil Gundam's left hand. In its right, it grasped a long beam saber burned blood-red.

Ed immediately unslung Sword Calamity's signature blades. Even with one in either of his Mobile Suit's hands, he didn't feel safe or strong.

Neros and the Gerbera Tetra had already made it safely to the still-nameless ship, with Gaia already shoved into an empty hangar bay. Michelo seemed content to watch the proceedings and cackle at them with glee from Neros's cockpit, but Cima took no particular interest in slaughter. She disembarked from the Gerbera Tetra and went looking for some sign of their host.

A man awaited her on the hangar, watching camera feeds and other data streams being transmitted by his evil-looking Gundam. He was dressed impeccably in a manner reminiscent of a nineteenth century nobleman and, Cima had to admit, as devastatingly handsome as she might have hoped for. He had to hear her approaching and taking her helmet off, but he paid her no attention.

"Excuse me..." Cima asked. "I hate to interrupt, but..."

He answered her, absently. "Yes, I'm Treize Khushrenada. Please pardon my distraction, this battle will be a crucial test for my Epyon..."

"Epyon? That red Mobile Suit?"

"Yes, I designed it myself... but its systems are very special. It's imperative that I monitor its performance very carefully."

Cima frowned. Couldn't you just leave that to whoever was piloting the stupid thing? Well, maybe Treize hadn't had time to find a very good pilot. A glance at one of the cockpit feed screens made it look like he'd thrown some kid into it.

-X-X-X-

"Tactical Mode, engage." Epyon's pilot had a voice like a dead thing.

Domon blazed forward, unafraid. He extended Shining Gundam's right foot and drew back its right arm, hand in a fist. "TORYA!" He cried, voice booming. His Mobile Fighter's flight accelerated, throwing his suit forward in a beautiful jump-kick. A conventional Mobile Suit could never have executed such a maneuver so gracefully.

Epyon raised its shield-buckler to block the incoming attack, metal slamming into metal soundlessly. The momentum began to throw Epyon backwards before it could begin to raise its saber to counter-attack. Domon leapt away in the nick of time, using its verniers to fault off of Epyon's shield and flip back into an upright position.

"Get ready, I'm bringing him to you!" Domon shouted.

"We got it from here!" Ed cried.

Sword Calamity raised its arm and fired off its rocket anchor, which latched onto Epyon's backpack. Bracing itself with its thrusters so it could hold its position, Sword Calamity began reeling the enemy Mobile Suit in.

Gato hefted the Hyaku Shiki's beam rifle and opened fire. Caught in momentum as it was, the Epyon was not a particularly difficult target. The shots scored Epyon again and again... but, to Gato's horror, he realized that they were having no significant effect.

He could see heat scores forming on the armor, but any Mobile Suit he could have imagined would have been utterly torn apart by such an attack. Even an I-field would have done little good at this kind of range. This evil Gundam was made of some material so impossibly tough, it was barely scratched by beam shots hitting at nearly point-blank range.

"Harrelson, it's not working!" For all that Gato prided himself on keeping his cool in combat, there was panic in his voice.

"I got it, I got it!" Ed hefted the anti-ship sword in his off hand high, ready to cleave the enemy MS in half once it was close enough to him. It might shrug off beam fire, but nothing shrugged off the Ripper in close quarters.

Epyon would not allow itself to be defeated so easily. The pilot regained control of his suit's momentum and spun it around rapidly in a flare of verniers. Epyon raised its left hand, whipping its enormous heat rod forward.

It flew with such velocity and such strong electric discharge that it tore easily through Sword Calamity's Trans-Phase armor. Ed's machine was bisected through the cockpit, the battery consuming the Mobile Suit and most of its remains in a silent ball of fire.

Destroying Sword Calamity barely slowed that hideous heat rod down. Moving in a wide arm, Epyon lashed it into Gato's Hyaku Shiki. The machine's loose tuning saved Gato's life, as a flick of the wrist was able to get his cockpit out of harm's way.

Instead the heat rod sheared through the machine's shoulders. The Hyaku Shiki's arms and head were abruptly separated from its body. Now Gato realized he was barely better off than Shin, trapped in a Mobile Suit that still had an operating power plant but no offensive capacity and severely restricted mobility.

"Domon, get out of here!" Gato's voice was grim. "We're dead men, but you can still save yourself."

There was a pause. Some small, shameful part of Domon wanted to listen. He was not trained for such hellish battlefields as this, where good men died in the blink of an eye.

It was the better part of Domon that steeled his voice. "I told you, Anavel Gato, I am no soldier. Do not presume to give me such commands! The King of Hearts will not abandon his friends!"

Shining Gundam closed to melee range with Epyon, which was still and deadly quiet after its latest deadly attack. The Mobile Fighter pointed its finger at the red machine.

"Listen to me, enemy Gundam! I swear upon my honor as the Gundam Fighter of Neo-Japan that no one else dies on the field of battle today! You will not have these men's lives and you will not have mine, do you understand?"

There was a pause. "I will kill you." Epyon's pilot's voice was barely above a whisper.

Shining Gundam beckoned Epyon forward with its fingers. "Try if you dare!"

Aboard Treize's ship, Michelo leaned closer to the video feeds streaming into Neros's cockpit. His face was barely inches away from them, face contorted in glee. "... now this, this is going to be really good..."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

I won't name Epyon's pilot on the roster yet, but it shouldn't be too hard for a Wing fan to guess who's in the cockpit. A hardcore Wing fan might be able to guess Treize's ship's name, too.

"How strong is gundanium armor?" is a tricky question when writing about Wing mecha, because it's inconsistently depicted in the source material. Sometimes it's invincible, sometimes it's just really tough, and it seems to vary depending on who worked on particular episodes of the show. Some directors or writers might have depicted Gato and Ed's flanking attack as being much more effective. For Gundam Wars's purposes I'm settling on a depiction that serves my storytelling purposes, so if Epyon seems stronger or weaker than a particular scene you remember, it's probably intentiional.

Yes, we'll get back to the DOME away team next time. I just needed to take a little time to get all the pieces in place on the board.  
Someone in the reviews asked when I'd give the heroes a break. Well... if I did that, things would get pretty boring, wouldn't they? Well, I guess it'd get boring for me. Anyway, stay tuned. I wouldn't despair for the Izumo and Dogos Gear crews just yet. Remember, they've got a lot of strong MS and pilots left.

Someone asked me here to state the true intentions of the Beyonder. I think it'll be a lot more fun for you guys if I do that in the story, instead. So please be patient and stay tuned.

I keep track of all of the characters by using copious notes (which sometimes get messed up during rewrites) and trying to break characters up into little groups when I write them. Figuring out who should interact with who is mostly a matter of which character concepts seem to to clash in interesting ways.

Someone asked for a "casting call" sort of list for a Gundam Wars movie in the reviews. I'm sad to say that I'm totally incapable of writing such a thing. I only watch two or three new movies each year and then I'm more a fan of directors. I don't really know much about actors. Sorry to disappoint!

The same person asked for a soundtrack or suggested music list. Usually I refrain from publishing these things because, well, you don't exactly see novels with recommended soundtracks. It just feels a bit too fannish to me to put stuff like that in the body of the story, people can really just listen to whatever they want. In the author's notes, though, it seems like a harmless enough exercise if people want reccs.

Providing an entire list of what I listen to while writing Gundam Wars would be very unwieldy, so instead I'll recommend one album or single at the end of each chapter. For this one I'll recommend J-Pop balladeer Hitomi Shimatani's 2005 album Heart & Symphony. It's a nice blend of delicate ballads and more aggressive pop tracks that feels very Gundam-like to me.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction-

ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Garma Zabi (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Strike Rouge

Johnny Ridden

Anavel Gato / Hyaku Shiki (damaged)

Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)

Witz Sou (Casualty) / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam

Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran Cehack

White Base

- ? Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / ?

? / Gundam Epyon

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster


	32. Chapter 32

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: In the aftermath of Haman's attack at DOME, Rondo seeks justice while Amuro struggles to save lives. Shining Gundam and Epyon clash in the shadow of a new enemy.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Rondo Mina Sahaku struggled to pull herself to her feet as she heard Haman retreat. At first it was too painful even to try, but Rondo's pride ran deep. Though she had to pull herself up the walls with her arms, she did so. Once on her feet, the pain in her leg was easier to ignore.

She glanced about the room. Amuro was kneeling by Garma, carefully applying an adhesive patch to the bullet hole in his Normal Suit.

"DOME?" Rondo asked.

"No, he's gone now." Amuro didn't glance back at her, but it was clear simply from his tone that he was himself again. "How bad off are you?"

"Not half so bad as Haman Karn is hoping, I'm sure." She dug through one of her emergency pouches and felt around her Normal Suit's thighs for bullet holes. She found one and immediately patched it, for safety's sake. "What of Witz and Lord Garma?"

"They're alive, but I don't know for how long... Garma's in bad shape. He needs a doctor. I'm going to try taking him to Von Braun."

"That lunar city? Are you sure it's here?"

"Absolutely. DOME could sense the people living there, though it's not exactly close." Amuro paused to roll Garma gently over and search for an exit hole. He found one, which he hoped was a good sign. Like most pilots, he was trained in first aid, but knew that ideally he wouldn't be moving Garma around at all.

It would actually be a shorter trip if he could just take Garma back to the Dogos Gear, but the Beyonder hadn't seen fit to give either faction a properly trained medic to use the medical supplies stored there. Insane little touches like that left Amuro, at least, with the impression that the Beyonder simply did not understand human biology on anything more than a frighteningly basic level.

Rondo tried putting weight on her injured leg. It wavered, but held. She might not get back to Gold Frame quickly, but she would get there. "That's interesting. Did DOME leave you with any other useful information?"

"Lots of it, but it'll have to wait. I'm not letting Haman get away with murder if I can help it."

"Neither am I. So if you'll excuse me, Captain, I'm going to go show Haman Karn what I think of traitors."

Amuro glanced at her over one shoulder. "You're still injured..."

"I'm a coordinator. Haman should have shot me in the head if she wanted a mere bullet to stop me."

"... Haman won't be an easy opponent. Her machine uses bits. She's got quite a reputation, besides."

"Bits?" Rondo blanked on the term for a moment. "Oh, DRAGOONs." She chuckled to herself. "Don't worry about that, Captain. Gold Frame has ways of dealing with DRAGOONs."

Amuro felt slightly uneasy, but it wasn't his place to make Rondo's decisions. She was certainly fierce enough to face Haman. It was Rondo's right to make the attempt if she wanted. Amuro would probably do it himself if there weren't casualties to consider.

"Then good luck," Amuro said. "I hope to see you again at Von Braun."

"I don't intend to let you down, Captain." Rondo moved to leave DOME, her limp fading as she got used to the discomfort.

-X-X-X-

Transporting Witz and Garma to Von Braun via Turn-A was not easy. Fortunately, getting the men medical treatment proved simple enough once he arrived at the lunar colony. Von Braun had become a mecca for confused Spacenoids who found themselves displaced by the Beyonder's inscrutable plans. People showing up with urgent injuries and desperate stories of how they got them weren't all that unusual.

Garma didn't receive the sort of royal treament he might have had Amuro taken him to Granada (which didn't seem to exist on the Beyonder's moon, for whatever reason), but there were enough Zeon loyalists present in the Von Braun hospital that Amuro could feel like Garma was getting the best care possible. Witz was assured good treatment by association.

He waited around until someone could tell him something very definite about both Garma and Witz's conditions, then went to go try and place a call to the Dogos Gear from the lobby. Johnny was quite surprised when he patched it through, though Amuro could also tell from his ashen complexion along that things hadn't been going well.

"Captain Ray, I'm glad to hear from you. Where are you calling from?"

"Von Braun. Things were south at DOME..."

"What happened?"

Amuro tried to fill Johnny in as briskly as possible on the current status quo. Johnny seemed unsurprised, if furious, at the news of Haman's murderous betrayal. Something must have been brewing on the Dogos Gear for quite some time. Amuro was seized again by the nagging feeling that he hadn't really done the right thing when he'd left White Base with his "neutral" faction.

"Damned Beyonder..." Johnny cursed. "He gives us warships and weapons, but doesn't have enough forethought to give us even one field doctor! If Lord Garma dies over that..."

Amuro sighed. He'd thought on the subject himself after speaking with people at the Von Braun hospital. Apparently a lot of infrastructure was badly damaged due to lack of skilled maintenance personnel. The Beyonder just didn't seem to understand what it took to run a human society... or at least wasn't interested in the workings of anything less glamorous than warships and Mobile Suits.

He attempted to change the subject. "As for where Haman Karn is, I'm not sure. Rondo swore to track her down while I ran the rescue mission to the hospital. Has she shown up on the Dogos Gear's instruments?"

"No. I'll patch a request through to the Izumo to see if they've found anything," Johnny said. "What's ultimately going to happen with DOME?"

"It turns out it's operated by a... I don't know how to explain it. A Newtype AI, let's say. Once he was awake, DOME chose to shut itself down so it wouldn't be used to hurt anyone else. That's what set Haman off."

"Hm. So DOME is out of play entirely?"

"Ah..." Amuro hesitated, judging whether or not he'd trust Johnny with his next bit of intel. He decided to risk it.

"Not completely," Amuro said. "No one else knows this yet, but... DOME is willing to aid us under the right circumstances. He just feels that, right now, he'd escalate the conflict pointlessly. DOME uploaded instructions for his reactivation into Turn-A's encrypted data files before he shut down."

"What constitutes 'the right circumstances' for DOME?"

"It appears DOME wiped out most of human civilization on Witz's world," Amuro said. "So I imagine, some threat so enormous that the world faces that kind of danger anyway."

Johnny mused on that, then nodded. "I understand. Let's keep this between the two of us for now, Captain Ray."

Amuro nodded. He'd rather everyone think DOME was deactivated for good, anyway. "How are things going back at the ships?"

The line of Johnny's jaw tightened. Amuro went deathly silent as Johnny told him the story of Michelo's bizarre appearance and Cima's betrayal.

"As it stands, we have about four units pursuing Garahau, Chariot, and their hostage. I have a bad feeling about how this is going to turn out, though. Chariot appeared to be flying on a basically random trajectory toward Earth. It doesn't make any sense unless..."

"... the Beyonder's given him reinforcements," Amuro finished.

Johnny nodded. "Presumably we're due for reinforcements, too, but we've only lost a few men. We'll probably only get a handful of new pilots, while Chariot and Garahau may well have a whole new squadron waiting for them."

Amuro's brow furrowed. "There seems to be a remnant of Anaheim Electronics still active in Von Braun. I'm going to see what I can do."

Johnny didn't follow. "What you can do?"

"If there's a new enemy faction out there, then we need to be ready to defend ourselves. We need to repair our salvageable Mobile Suits and replace the ones that are lost causes. We need to upgrade machines that can be improved." Amuro's voice was grave. "If the Beyonder will give even a single straggler like Michelo a new army every time he gets away from us... we can't permit any more stragglers. We have to try and win this."

"You're right. This isn't just a war game anymore, the stakes are too high," Johnny said. "Do what you can, Captain, and keep in touch. You will have my full cooperation."

-X-X-X-

Haman Karn's Qubeley tore through space. She expected to be pursued. She hoped to reach a safe haven before anyone could catch up to her. The Qubeley was not a machine designed for an especially high top speed, since a Newtype unit equipped with bits rarely needed to flee from anything. She fled DOME only because she knew that it was one of the few things truly strong enough to destroy her.

A prickling intuition told her that something lay between the Moon and Earth, something unknown that might be her ally. She was willing to chance it now that neither the Izumo nor the Dogos Gear would accept her. Once she had built up a new coterie of allies, she'd return and punish the whole insolent lot of them, DOME included.

Pursuit drew nearer, closer than Haman cared to tolerate. Between her instruments and her Newtype intuition, she had a good idea of where the threat was located even without any sort of visual confirmation. She loosed the Qubeley's bits from the Mobile Suit's tail binder, which protruded from the machine's back like an insect's abdomen.

Haman could feel the Qubeley's ten bits move like an extension of herself, swirling toward their target with invisible grace. She carefully arranged the bits around the enemy Mobile Suit moving toward her in a sphere of death that only the sharpest instruments or finest Newtype senses would detect. Mentally, physically, she ordered her bits to fire and carve her unknown enemy to pieces with beam fire.

At that moment, Haman suddenly felt nothing at all. It was as if the bits had run out of energy, but that was impossible. They'd had days to charge their e-caps to full in the Qubeley's tail binder. Haman reached out with her senses, trying to push harder, but it was no use. She could no longer even tell where her bits were located, let alone move them.

She glanced down idly at her Qubeley's output gauge, concerned there might be something wrong with her reactor. Was she right? Its output was low, much too low... but when she took off from the Dogos Gear earlier that day, it had been completely normal...

A burst of Newtype intuition struck her. Though her instruments and external cameras showed nothing, she felt an enormous, hostile presence bearing down on her. She fired her machine's verniers, abruptly juking upward roughly 20 meters. Her instruments clearly recording three high-speed metal lances screaming through the space she'd been in just a half-second before. The attack would've torn her cockpit to pieces had it connected.

"You should have killed me, Haman Karn!" It was a woman's voice- the woman in black, ruler of a country that never existed in Haman's world. "You should never have tolerated my survival! For now that I've survived your treachery, know that I will never rest until you are dead. That is price of insulting House Sahaku!"

Haman scanned her instruments more rapidly than an ordinary human could think. Her visuals told her nothing, infrared and other energy-based scanners behaved as if there was nothing nearby. Her own intuition screamed danger, warning of an enemy who was right on top of her. With a flick of the Qubeley's wrist, she loosed her right beam saber and brought it up defensively.

There was a spray of sparks as the Qubeley's beam saber slashed apart her attacker's previously-invisible solid metal sword. This wouldn't be the first time Haman survived based on the strength of pure unconscious Newtype reflex alone.

Her conscious mind, though, was grappling with the enormity of the enemy that faced her: a Mobile Suit invisible both to the eye and heat-based sensors, with some inscrutable ability to drain energy from both her reactor and her bits' e-cap system.

Haman heard Rondo laugh over her comms systems. "How interesting! You Newtypes really can see the future. I wonder how long you'll last against my precious Gold Frame?"

"Do not look down on me, you... you genetic freak! Don't you dare look down on the Ghost of Zeon!" In her fury, Haman's consciousness expandeded.

Suddenly it was as if space distorted around the invisible Mobile Suit and she could see its outline- fleeting, indistinct. Haman would either destroy this foe here or lead it away to her destination, where the fury of another battle might give her fresh advantage.

-X-X-X-

A tremendous battle was about to unfold in the shadow of the Granshirio, the OZ flagship that Treize Kushrenada had never used before he came to the Beyonder's world. Treize was so consumed with his need to watch it unfold on the screens before him, a veritable wall of data transmitted from Epyon's internal computers, that he did not pay much attention to the moment when Neros and the Gerbera Tetra docked in its spacious hangar.

Once the Gaia was stowed- the sleeping pilot could be retrieved later- Michelo and Cima emerged to meet their mysterious benefactor. Treize Khushrenada seemed like he would be an imposing man standing upright. He was dressed in what appeared to be a flamboyant continental uniform, with a tight-fitting blue coat and a great black boots. His voice, when he spoke, gave Cima chills.

"Forgive me, sir, madam, for my rudeness," Treize said, waithout glancing toward them. "I did not anticipate Epyon would find such a promising opponent so quickly. Epyon's systems will bear careful monitoring."

"'Careful monitoring,'" Michelo sneered. "Yeah, I'd want to watch my boy's ass, too, if he was up against the King of Hearts."

Cima peered over Treize's shoulder so she could get a glimpse of Epyon's pilot, in a cockpit feed camera. It was a person rather small in stature, but unquestionably male. She frowned. "How old is your pilot, Khushrenada?"

"Treize," he corrected her. "Colonel Treize, if you will. The pilot is one Heero Yuy... he is young, but quite skillful and well-suited to the Epyon System. I fear you'd find nothing else about him very interesting."

Michelo cackled. "If he manages not to get that suit's head blown off, that'll be interesting!"

"I find your faith in this 'King of Hearts's ability quite intriguing..." Treize spared a glance up at Michelo.

Domon's Shining Gundam and Heero's Epyon had yet to attack each other. Both men were tense, ready, Epyon's weapons raised and Shining Gundam poised in a martial artist's wide-footed, arms-raised stance. Domon hoped to make the other pilot risk himself by making the first move. Heero was calmly sorting through the wash of data the Search Eye and Epyon System assaulted him with.

Epyon made the first move. It ignited its beam saber, increasing its size many times over until it was longer than Epyon was tall. The suit didn't even have to close substantially on Shining Gundam to bring the energy blade across in a deadly horizontal sweep, poised to bisect the cockpit.

Shining Gundam's evasion was like nothing Treize or Cima had ever seen a machine do before. Domon backflipped the machine in place with its verniers and juked it down slightly. Epyon's energy blade passed perhaps half a meter over Shining Gundam's cockpit while it lay flat on its back. The machine righted itself and then Domon surged forward in a flare of Shining's thrusters.

Heero snapped Epyon's energy-gorged blade upwards on the diagonal, turning it into a deadly roadblock for Shining Gundam. Stopping short of that obstacle was impossible. Instead Domon evaded by tucking his suits arms and legs in, spinning down and away from the energy blade with uncanny grace.

Shining Gundam's movements baffled both the Epyon System and its creator, who had never seen a mobile weapon capable of human-like flexibility, let alone imitations of classical martial arts movements. The Epyon System's data processing was slowing to a crawl, algorithms constantly rewriting themselves to try and compensate for Shining Gundam's ever-widening array of previously inconceivable abilities.

Heero grunted in irritation. The loss of processing speed was also slowing Epyon's operating system, in turn slowing its movements to far less than its full capability. He could tell he was open to an attack, so open that only a fool would fail to press his advantage here. Tearing his mind away from Epyon was difficult, but he'd have to if he was going to survive.

Domon Kasshu was no fool. He extended one of Shining Gundam's hands, balling it into a metallic fist. The suit began to spin like an enormous top as its verniers propelled it forward at unthinkable speeds. A charge of energy built up in the emitters that lined its hands, the suit's deadliest weapons.

"SHINING CORKSCREW PUNCH!"

Domon's voice was a roar as he announced his technique. The energy-charged fist rammed powerfully into Epyon's torso, shattering the bright green camera lens that gathered data for the Search Eye system. The discharge wasn't otherwise powerful enough to do more than send a few hairline cracks through Epyon's heavily armored torso. Epyon sailed back a few meters as Shining Gundam whirled to an impossibly perfect stop.

Aboard the Granshirio, Treize's eyes flicked with a mixture of concern and incredible interest as he saw the Search Eye System's data screen go dark. The Epyon System's data flows were returning error messages elsewhere. No foe in Treize's world had ever managed to break Epyon's predictive algorithms like this. Heero was now surely struggling against it.

Cima found the whole display baffling. "Why's he announcing his attacks like that? Isn't that giving his opponent an advantage?"

"Keh!" Michelo grunted in disgust. "Not if you're any good. And it seems pretty clear to me that the King of Hearts is way out of that kid's league, Treize."

"The fault is mine," Treize murmured, though he did not sound unduly upset. "I never could have foreseen that any Mobile Suit could do such things..."

"Mobile Fighter!" Michelo said. "Even a crap Fighter like Shining Gundam is worth ten regular Mobile Suits."

"Ah, and you pilot a Mobile Fighter yourself, don't you..."  
A new obsession was slowly taking shape in Treize's mind. If Mobile Fighters were truly the supreme form of Mobile weapon in the cosmos, then Epyon was not really complete until it could defeat one utterly.

Of course, if Treize was to have enough time to overhaul the Epyon System, he would need to get Heero off the field without losing face or letting the Epyon itself take undue damage at Shining Gundam's hands. That would take some doing. Heero would simply have to endure until an opportunity presented itself.

Shining Gundam loosed one of its hip-mounted beam sabers and took it into its hands. Mobile Fighters were programmed to aggressively gather data on enemy armaments and Shining Gundam's systems had quickly zeroed in on the power cable that connected Epyon's fearsome beam saber to its backpack as a potential vulnerability.

Domon wanted to disable that sword, as much to protect the lives of Gato and Shin as to make his own fight easier. He descended again, beam saber held in both hands, swinging it down over Shining Gundam's head in a glittering arc.

"SHINING SWORD!"

In that moment, Domon made a terrible mistake. Treize had committed to the exposed cable on the Epyon because he reasoned that it would serve as a deadly temptation to elite enemy suits. So the Epyon System's programming was more than prepared to anticipate and counter many different types of attack against that power cable. The moment Domon raised his sword, the Eypon System's flow of errors slowed and Heero was already retaliating.

Domon knew he was in trouble when Epyon moved, just enough to take the power cable out of his strike's range. He rapidly tried to get himself out of range of a counter-attack, which came in the form of Epyon's tremendous heat rod. This time the Epyon System was better-prepared to deal with Shining Gundam's acrobatic dodging. Just as Domon thought he would pull free, the heat rod's very tip wound about Shining Gundam's ankle.

That small contact was enough to deliver a tremendous electric charge. It didn't overwhelm Shining Gundam's electrical systems, but it send waves of painful biofeedback cascading through the Mobile Trace system. Domon himself felt the painful shock of electric discharge and his screams carried over the comms systems and out into space.

Epyon flipped its beam saber into position, reducing its charge until it was a more manageable size. It yanked back with the heat rod, reeling Shining Gundam in for a devastating blow.

Treize glanced over his shoulder, feeling quite pleased that such a small error had yielded such a great recovery in system performance. Michelo was aghast, apparently about to watch the King of Hearts die at the hands of a mere Mobile Suit.

"You were saying?" Treize asked.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Yes, Gold Frame really does fight like that.

Yeah, yeah, it was Heero. Of course it was Heero! If it wasn't, we couldn't have the crazy alt-Gundam throwdown of the 90s.

The Granshirio is from the G-UNIT Gundam Wing manga, which is in some ways the Astray before we had Astray. It's actually the carrier for OZ Prize, an OZ sub-faction that never made a whole lot of sense to me. I liked the carrier, though, so I could imagine the Beyonder just snagging Treize the coolest possible OZ carrier with little regard for whether or not the guy ever actually used it.

One reviewer wondered why there's not more technical descriptions, comparing technology from different universes and such. Mainly, I'm trying to follow the tone of how Gundam TV shows are written. Heavy technology details are generally only brought up when they're going to be important to the story somehow.

Another reviewer wanted to know how people could make requests for things they'd like to see in the story. Well, anyone's free to make whatever requests they like in reviews or comments. Just keep in mind that I probably won't be able to use most requests, since I've got my own plans for what happens in the story.

I also can't tell people whether or not I'll take a particular request basically until I've already used it, since I don't like to give away plans for future chapters and people have this interesting tendency to request stuff I'd already planned to deal with. For instance, check out the reviewer who wondered why there were no medics the chapter before that came up as a plot point!

I wrote the bulk of this chapter on a rainy day during a beach vacation, so I didn't have a lot of access to my usual music library. I did have quite a lot of Toshihiko Sahashi's Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny instrumental music on my iPod, though, so I'll recommend those albums for this chapter.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction-

ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Garma Zabi (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Strike Rouge

Johnny Ridden

Anavel Gato / Hyaku Shiki (damaged)

Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)

Witz Sou (Casualty) / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam

Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)

Gundam Airmaster (damaged)

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity Loran Cehack

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Heero Yuy / Epyon

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster


	33. Chapter 33

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Heero and Domon, Rondo and Haman... their battles reach their crescendo, setting the next great conflict of the Gundam War into motion.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The fight between Epyon and Shining Gundam was like nothing Anavel Gato had seen before. The sheer power and technique displayed transcended all of its ideas of how a Mobile Suit might move and what weapons it might wield. For a time, Gato believed that Domon Kasshu might even overwhelm Epyon, but it seemed impossible now.

Shin Asuka wept with frustration in Impulse's cockpit, though he had only the audio feed of the battle to follow in what he expected to be his last minutes alive. Domon had come close, so impossibly close, to stopping Epyon's horrible momentum. Yet now...

Domon Kasshu screamed in Shining Gundam's cockpit, his suit immobilized by Epyon's heat rod. Epyon raised its livid green energy blade and then swung it downward. Domon's screaming stopped... but then new sound from the King of Hearts's cockpit signified that he still lived.

Shining Gundam had saved itself through a display of skill so improbable and absurd that it flooded the Epyon System anew with errors. Forcing himself through the biofeedback pain, venting fresh power to the qi amplifiers concealed in Shining Gundam's hands, Domon had brought his suit's Shining Fingers together to block the blade by "catching" it.

"These hands of mine glow with an awesome power... their burning grip tells me to defeat you...!"

Just as martial artists were said to be able to stop steel with their hands in ancient legends, so had Shining Gundam stopped Epyon's great green beam saber by bringing its glowing green palms together around it. So great was the intensity of the energy emitted from the Gundam's Shining Fingers that it generated its own electromagnetic field, holding the beam saber in place.

This last moment of defiance couldn't and wouldn't have lasted long, if not for the Epyon System's growing instability. Heero immediately went to increase the power to the beam saber's blade, until it would grow so great it would simply immolate Shining Gundam.

In a simultaneous instant, both Mobile Suits were overwhelmed by the force of their pilots' attempts to keep fighting. The Epyon System crashed, sparks and smoke spraying from the Mobile Suit's neck. Heero let out a howl of pain as biofeedback began to flood his own system. The beam saber extinguished. Epyon jerked, as if the suit itself was experiencing a petit mal seizure.

A similar explosion rocked Shining Gundam's cockpit, its electrical systems hopelessly overextended by both the heat rod's attack and Domon's simultaneous activation of both of the Mobile Fighter's Shining Fingers. Shining Gundam went slack, its eyes dimming. Nothing came from the cockpit but silence.

In the Granshirio's hangar, Michelo had fallen into a rare moment of silence. Cima gasped openly. Treize rose from his seat, mind desperately working over what excuse he might have for letting Domon Kasshu escape to fight another day. At the moment, there was nothing Treize wanted more than to reprogram Epyon and pit it against that magnificent Mobile Fighter again, to determine a true winner.

-X-X-X-

"Mmm... your Mobile Suit is rather ugly, but I think I might like to have its reactor." Gold Frame invisibly juked and weaved its way through a spray of beam fire from the Qubeley's wrist-mounted guns. "Or perhaps the tail binder and those little DRAGOONs of yours..."

Haman was so angry that a Newtype opponent might have been incapacitated by that emotion alone. Rondo seemed utterly deaf to her pressure, though, which really just made Haman angrier. It took great restraint for Haman to keep herself from simply flying at Gold Frame and attempting to tear it to pieces in a shrieking rage.

"No, I think I rather prefer that reactor of yours. I can't help but notice that it generates enough power for me to run my Mirage Colloid cloak as long as I want, without draining my battery at all!" Rondo laughed. "Look, I can even use my beam saber and my cloak at the same time!"

A bright beam ignited near the suit's left arm. Haman judged that the blade would have to be wrist-mounted somehow, as it showed none of the tell-tale back-and-forth movement that betrayed a hand-held beam saber. She popped both of her beam sabers out out of their forearm holsters.

Haman hated to admit it, even to herself, but without the benefit of her bits she probably wouldn't be able to defeat Rondo's Gold Frame. Swordfighting an invisible opponent would push her senses to the limit and one error would prove fatal. She could survive for a time, though, and perhaps she might get out of this alive.

Her Qubeley faced what Haman could see of Gold Frame- the beam saber- but she began moving backwards using her verniers and reverse-thrusters. She was carefully aiming herself toward that great point of pressure in space she'd detected before, where now she could tell some sort of battle was going on.

"If you mean to have any part of my Mobile Suit, come and take it," Haman snapped. "Or does House Sahaku dispatch its enemies with mere words? While you are certainly adept at cowering behind your cloaking device, I've yet to see you do any sort of real fighting!"

Gold Frame was upon her in seconds. The two suits clashed sabers, the wills of the fearsome pilots clashing no less explosively. Haman's two hand-carried swords gave her an advantage against her opponent's single wrist-mounted sword, but that advantage that was almost completely nullified by Rondo's invisibility.

Haman had to fight with one blade always poised to defend against a sudden strike from Gold Frame's invisible off hand. That suited Haman's plans well enough; she kept moving back and back toward her goal, fighting a retreat battle through space as her destination seemed to loom ever-closed in her mind.

Rondo and Haman matched each other, blow for blow, always parrying the opponent's thrust, always evading the foe's deadly riposte. As swordswomen, in this situation, they were utterly equal. It infuriated them both to no end, but Haman was willing to keep the deadlock going. Soon they'd be within visual and instrument range of the great pressure she pursued.

Gold Frame suddenly broke away. Rondo Mina had no taste for stalemates. "Keh! I'll not have Gold Frame put through its paces by the likes of you. Die now, and regret your insolence!"

Haman felt a twinge of intuition pointing toward one of the Qubeley's enormous shoulders. She tried to move, but Gold Frame's invisibility gave it the edge in such close quarters. A great invisible claw had buried itself in one of the Qubeley's shoulders and began heaving upwards.

Now she understood what Rondo meant to do. By tearing the Qubeley's shoulder off, Gold Frame would either incapacitate its arm or simply tear the whole arm off with it. Gold Frame would be able to completely disarm her if it damaged both shoulders. Haman would be utterly helpless, Rondo free to tear out the Qubeley's reactor core and then leave her to die in space.

She remounted one of her beam sabers in its wrist holster, but hitting an invisible enemy perched on her shoulder and back was beyond even Haman's prodigious ability. The Qubeley's panoramic cockpit began to scream warnings at her as the cables that moored her arm to the shoulder housing began to snap.

It was a cry for help that saved Haman's life this time. "Commander Karn! Lady Sahaku! This is Anavel Gato in the MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki! We've sent a strike team here in pursuit of the traitor Cima Garahau and Michelo Chariot! They've made rendezvous with an unknown force that's harrying us with an elite unit! Please reinforce us, we've lost one man already and all pursuit units are damaged!"

-X-X-X-

Rondo Mina Sahaku cultivated ruthlessness, arrogance, and cruelty to her enemies as personal virtues. She was by right of birth a politician who worked in an oligarchic government that fiercely bred corruption, despite the high ideals of Orb's founder. Kindness was reserved for those she felt obliged to, by honor or duty or personal interest.

Because she had signed that treaty with Garma mere hours ago, she now felt as obligated to his Zeon troops as she would have felt to her own people in Orb or her precious Socius clones. The moment she heard Gato's plea for help, her entire sense of priorities changed.

Gold Frame ripped the Qubeley's left shoulder off in a final heave of strength. Still invisible, Rondo folded back its Tsumuha no Tachi claw and instead popped out its remaining solid-state Totsuka no Tsurugi sword. She slashed the solid blade across the major thrusters mounted on the Qubeley's suit, hobbling it. If it attempted to flare them, the damaged engines would probably ignite and tear the suit apart in a fiery explosion.

"Karn is a traitor, she won't help you," Rondo spoke over the comms. She dropped Gold Frame's Mirage Colloid cloak, so Gato's instruments would be able to identif her. The suit was still hard to spot visually against the darkness of space, as its body was predominantly matte black. Only its gold trim shone in the starlight. "Tell me what I can do."

Gato was silent for a moment, unable to comprehend the idea that Haman Karn was a traitor.

Rondo spoke again, this time her voice urgent and commanding. "Tell me what I can do, Commander Gato!"

Discipline took over. "The red unit is the threat. Domon Kasshu seems to have disabled it with his Shining Gundam, but I don't know for how long. My unit still has enough power for life support, but no weapons and no thrusters. Shin Asuka's unit... it lost power, I don't know if he's still alive. Harrelson is dead."

Gold Frame's sensors had alread picked up the field of debris Sword Calamity had left behind, though Rondo recognized it only now. "How wasteful..." Her voice was a hiss. "I'll destroy that red machine. Then I'll get the lot of you out of here, somehow." She ignited Gold Frame's beam saber and prepared to go for the kill.

"Please, do no such thing, Lady Sahaku." A man's voice spoke to her this time, a beautifully rich baritone.

"Identify yourself!" Rondo snapped.

"I am Treize Khushrenada, acting captain of the warship Granshirio. As I'm sure you've suspected, I am the commander of the forces opposing your own in this phase of the Beyonder's great Gundam War."

"So Chariot and Garahau have thrown in with you, I see."

"That's true enough, though I prefer to think of us as allies brought together by fate to participate in a battle glorious beyond any other." Treize paused. "To end that battle like this, in nothing more than a skirmish... that is too undignified. Don't you agree?"

"Of course. So surrender or get to your point, Khushrenada."

"Colonel Treize, please." He continued on as if oblivious to Rondo's impatience. "I can not offer you surrender now, Lady Sahaku, but I do offer a brief truce. Spare my Epyon and leave Haman Karn in my custody. In return, I shall permit you and your surviving allies to return to your ships in peace."

"Haman Karn!" Rondo spat. The idea of being deprived of her prey after such a long fight rankled. "What does she have to do with you?"

"Before now? Absolutely nothing. But it has been suggested to me that it would be very much worth my while to add her strength to our forces."

Rondo was furious, but not so furious that she was irrational. It was a good deal, in terms of saving her men. "Before I accept, Colonel Treize, how do you I know you'll keep your word? You're allying with people who have hardly proven themselves honorable."

"You would be right to mistrust me in personal affairs, Lady Sahaku, but I hold the conduct of military affairs in the highest esteem. I would never willingly disgrace a battlefield by violating a truce settled between commanders, nor would I permit my allies to do so."

That was good enough for Rondo. She knew that tone of voice- it was the sound of a disingenuous man indulging a moment of sincerity. "Very well, Colonel Treize. A truce for now, but don't expect it to last forever."

"Of course not. I shall contact your ship in three days' time, so we may decide when and where our forces shall meet in honorable battle."

Rondo cut communications with a grunt. She was rather surprised, then, to see Shining Gundam moving toward her from her right. It was carrying Impulse's cockpit block in its smoking hands.

"Mister Kasshu?"

"I live," Domon responded. The visual that accompanied his transition looked haggard indeed, his face a sheet of sweat and exhaustion. "I vowed to save these men. I must keep my word."

Gold Frame flared its thrusters and flew to where the disabled Hyaku Shiki floated in space, helpless. She grabbed it by one foot, so she could haul it along with her. "Yes, Asuka's battery is probably on emergency back-up by now, isn't it? If it hasn't run out. Let's get back to the Izumo and see if he's a dead man."

-X-X-X-

"Did you really mean that crap?" Michelo asked. "About not permitting me to do as I please? Because right now all I see if you letting a bunch of easy kills retreat!"

Treize glanced up at him, eyes half-lidded. "Yes, I intend to keep my word to her."

"You stupid son a bitch! Have us pursue and cut them down while they're limping!"

"Victory by such means would give me no satisfaction."

Michelo was livid. He began to advance on Treize, fist raised."Satisfaction! Do you know who you're dealing with, little man? Do you know how easy I could kill you and run this operation myself?"

"Yes." Treize's voice was even, his demeanor not intimidated. "You could kill me very easily, Michelo Chariot."

Michelo stopped in his tracks, blinked. He had never, in his entire life, heard such a response to his rages.

Treize spoke on, his voice rising. "And even with all of your strength, you must concede that I could kill you in the right circumstances, Michelo Chariot. I could ambush you in the dark with a pistol, poison your food, or simply stab you in the back. But what would it say about me, Treize Khushrenada, if I resorted to such means to defeat you? It would say that I was a weak and desperate man, conniving against my superior."

Michelo lowered his fist. He was listening.

Treize smiled. "I believe the Beyonder's war here shall make us all immortal, Michelo Chariot. We have a share of everlasting glory simply for being chosen. If a cosmic god has such faith in our ability, why should we resort to any underhanded means in facing our opponents? If we are indeed the stronger men, what have we to lose when we treat our opponents honorably? Michelo Chariot, my faith in my power is such that I believe I have nothing to fear from Sahaku's forces. Surely your confidence is no less than mine."

Michelo began to laugh, incredulous at first, but eventually a laugh so hearty and boisterous that it bordered on a roar. "I like you, Khushrenada! Every other suit I've seen here has gone spineless the minute I looked at 'em funny. But you? You've got some serious balls, Khushrenada. If I didn't know better I'd think you were a Gundam Fighter."

"I take that as a great compliment, Michelo Chariot."

Michelo grinned, leaning quite close to Treize. "I'll try playing the game your way for now. I liked that little speech of yours. But I'd better see why you've got so much confidence when the time comes, huh?"

"You will." Treize was still perfectly poised, not so much as a hair out of place.

"I hate to interrupt, gentlemen..." Cima spoke up only when it seemed no one was going to get murdered. "... but I think it'd be in our best interests if I went out and gathered up Haman and your Epyon." Cima disliked the idea of pressing Treize to save Haman, purely so she could die of some sort of neglect.

Treize was grateful for the change of subject. "Please. I'd like some time to look over Epyon and have a meeting before I introduce you to the rest of the pilots."

"'Rest of the pilots'...?" Michelo asked.

Treize gestured with one hand. "I cannot blame you for being disinterested, Michelo Chariot, but look behind me, to my right."

Michelo looked. He saw a trio of Gundams. One was white with great blue wingbinders on its back, another a non-descript grey but holding a curious shield in storage on its right arm. The third was also white, but highlighted in a curiously livid shade of orange.

"I was not without strength before you came here, Michelo Chariot, but now my strength is effectively doubled. I think we should be careful to use that strength to its fullest, shouldn't we?"

Michelo just chuckled. Yes, he really was inclined to like this Treize guy.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

I won't put Treize's other pilots on the roster until they're more fully revealed.

It is not strictly canonical, to my knowledge, that Shining Gundam has a Shinger Finger system in each hand. It is strictly canonical that God Gundam has a God Finger system in each hand, though. It seemed appropriate that Shining might be equipped the same way.

I honestly didn't listen to a lot of music while writing this chapter, so instead I'll recommend the OST to the first episode of Unicorn Gundam. There's a few tracks from it that are sublime, but the entire disc is pretty atmospheric when played in its entirety.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Garma Zabi (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Strike Rouge

Johnny Ridden

Anavel Gato / Hyaku Shiki (damaged)

Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)

Witz Sou (Casualty) / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam

Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran Cehack

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Heero Yuy / Epyon

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster


	34. Chapter 34

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The crew of the Izumo assess the damage and regroup, preparing for their great counter-offensive against Treize.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Izumo had only one hangar. It was a massive space that filled the entire front of the ship, quite unlike the more modest accommodations offered by White Base and the Dogos Gear. Baroque, gilded catwalks lined the MS bays, quite at odds with the ship's militaristic exterior.

It seemed too large to Christina as she stood in it, as if the Beyonder had somehow cheated space and enlarged it without making the ship any bigger. She had thought about running tests to try and confirm her suspicious, but right now she had more important things to consider. The teams that had gone on the away mission to chase down Michelo Chariot were coming back soon.

The hangar seemed cavernous, housing only her NT-1 Alex and Garma's dull brown Zaku II. Johnny had piloted the Zaku over earlier, since both away teams were returning to the Izumo. His face was heavy with worry and he was more tight-lipped than usual. He looked at Christina, sometimes, his eyes unreadable.

They stood together quietly in their Normal Suits, awaiting the return of the machines that had departed to pursue Michelo and Cima and poor Stellar. Rondo had tersely radioed ahead, announcing their impending arrival. Christina had configured the catapult bay doors to open automatically once the MS were in range.

Christina raised a gloved hand to her helmet's faceplate in horror as the MS began to enter. The machines were in a truly wretched state. The headless Hyaku Shiki was being towed by Gold Frame, apparently too damaged to land itself. Impulse was little more than a dull grey torso block tucked under the arm of Shining Gundam, whose armor was deeply marked and scored.

Edward's Sword Calamity simply was not there. Gaia had not been recovered. She knew what that meant. The mission had failed, and Edward was most likely dead. When a Mobile Suit simply didn't come back, that usually meant there was nothing left to salvage and no trace of a body to send home.

Christina felt Johnny's hand on her shoulder, then realized she had begun to cry. Johnny's eyes were stoically dry, but even through his helmet's glass she could see, by the weight in his eyes, that he already knew of Edward's death. She wondered if that was why he had insisted on coming aboard. It occurred to her that Johnny Ridden might be a better man than she had dared believe.

The airlock shut with a hiss once all of the MS were aboard. One by one, the pilots emerged. Rondo limped in her magnetic boots, wincing visibly at each step. Gato seemed well enough, but his face was pale and haggard.

Domon emerged in a strange black suit, utterly skintight and made of some material much thinner than a Normal Suit. It had a huge yellow collar and what appeared to be antenna transmitters mounted on the shoulders, molded of some unknown polymer. It didn't look spaceworthy to Christina, as it was both helmetless and bootless. The material was much too thin to allow for survival in space, even if Domon's head had been protected.

Rondo popped open Impulse's hatch using the emergency access panel. It was only then that it occurred to Christina that Shin might still be alive. The boy all but tumbled out of what remained of his machine, trembling, only the magnetic boots holding him to the hangar floor. When she saw his faceplate, half of it was red-soaked cotton. He'd been hurt at some point, and badly.  
Johnny strode forward to address the others. Christina followed, too numb to ask but desperate to know what had happened. "Lady Sahaku. Mister Asuka. Welcome back. While I doubt the first thing either of you want to do is climb back into a Mobile Suit, you both need medical attention immediately. Captain Ray and Mister Witz are waiting for you at a medical facility in Von Braun City."

It seemed Rondo wasn't even going to take her helmet off. "Good. This thing is starting to irritate me."

Shin, as ever, proved more recalcitrant. "No! I can't go now, she needs me!"

"You may be a coordinator, boy, but there's still a limit to how much blood you can lose," said Rondo.

Shin ignored her reproachful glare. He pulled himself to his feet and took a few heavy steps toward Domon, who was bracing himself on Impulse's wreckage.

Domon regarded the boy with a blank, silent stare.

"You've got to teach me." Shin's voice was desperate.

"Teach you?" Domon asked.

"He took Stellar!" Shin shouted, throat so dry his voice cracked. It was obvious enough who he meant. "I have to stop him! You have to help me stop him!"

"What makes you think I can do that?"

"You've already beaten him! You're stronger than a coordinator... you could beat him, you beat that red Mobile Suit, you can do anything! Teach me how to be like you!"

Rondo wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."

Domon's thick brows furrowed. "The battle is over. Get your face looked at."

"Aren't you listening? I have to rescue her! I can't do it like this!"

Gato frowned. "Mister Asuka, your sentiments are noble, but you can accomplish nothing in this state."

Shin ignored Gato, frustrated by Domon's silence. "Give me an answer!"

"SILENCE!" Domon's voice boomed through the hangar like a thunderclap. It shocked Shin into silence. "You come to me, to the King of Hearts, demanding the secrets of Tohofuhai? You, a man too stupid to attend his own wounds, beg for the secrets of a Gundam Fighter? What you ask is impossible!"

For the first time anyone had ever seen, Shin appeared utterly cowed into silence. He sank to his knees, as if no longer strong enough to stand. Soon it was clear, though, that Shin's adrenaline rush was merely beginning to fade.

He pounded his fist into the hangar's floor once, twice, a third time. His remaining eye welled with tears. "I can't just leave her! I can't let him get away with killing Flay! If I can't bring Michelo to justice then I might as well be dead!"

"I might consider training a man who wanted to live," Domon said. He sounded calmer now, if still stern, his arms were crossed. He wasn't looking at Shin at all.

"I believe that means he'll consider your request if you go see a damned doctor," Rondo said. She extended a hand to Shin and scowled slightly when he didn't take it, instead struggling up to his feet on his own.

"F-fine. Fine." Domon's words seemed to have sunk in.

Rondo's scowl deepened. "You're going to be like this the entire way back, aren't you?"

"I don't like Orb," Shin muttered.

Rondo snorted as she went to ride the footline back up into Gold Frame's cockpit. "You 'don't like' Orb. Please. What could you even know about Orb? Nothing but PLANT propaganda, I'm sure."

Shin's scowl became much deeper than her own. He said no more as he took his turn riding up the footline into Gold Frame's cockpit.

Domon took the opportunity to leave, sailing weightlessly toward one of the upper exits. The others donned their helmets so Gold Frame could launch itself once the airlock was released. Christina had to operate the rail mechanism that assisted with the launch, but that was easy enough to do remotely.

This left Gato, Johnny, and Christina alone in the hangar. Gato took the initiative in the silence, removing his helmet and striding toward her. He bowed deeply, until the top of his head was parallel with the floor.

"I bear full responsibility for Harrelson's death," he said. "Please accept my apologies."

Christina blinked. "W-what?"

Gato straightened, his posture rigid. For once, he was not impatient with the idea of explaining himself. "Harrelson was following my orders when he was ambushed by... an enemy, a red Mobile Suit that was more powerful than I could have imagined. I completely misread the situation. We would all be dead if not for Mr. Kasshu. Captain Harrelson trusted me and I failed him completely."

Christina took a deep breath. She, too, removed her helmet. Her face was tear-streaked. "I'm not going to be angry with you. I'll blame that ambush on the Beyonder. Ed thought we all fought too much, anyway."

"He was a wise man, in his way," Johnny said, removing his helmet. "I'm very sorry to lose him."

"He will be avenged!" There was a fury in Gato's voice as he made that vow that was quite unlike anything Christina had seen from him before. It was, frankly, quite unlike anything she could imagine a Federation soldier doing.

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't act like you'll do it by yourself."

"I hate to interrupt this," Johnny began. "... I truly, truly hate to do this, but Lieutenant Gato, you deserve to hear this now."

Both Christina and Gato glanced at him. Johnny took a deep breath. Gato showed no signs of anticipating what he was going to say.

"Lord Garma has passed away," Johnny said.

It was Gato's turn to be baffled. "- what?"

"He was injured in the same attack that wounded Lady Sahaku, but more gravely. He went into surgery while you were out fighting, but... it was already too late."

Christina put her hands up to her mouth again, her horror renewed. For all that he was the enemy, for all that she'd found Garma a profound irritant, she had seen how deeply the two Zeon men believed in Garma Zabi. Their faith was rendered all the more profound by the simple knowledge of how little Garma's life had amounted to in the known history of the Universal Century.

"Who did this, who would have dared?" Gato was too angry to raise his voice, his face a mask of cold fury.

"Lieutenant Gato, did you not find it strange that Lady Sahaku was fighting Commander Karn when she ran across your team?"

"You mean Commander Karn-" Gato's eyes went wide. It was a situation he could neither conceive nor accept, even with a mountain of evidence before his eyes. "- no. No. Why would Commander Karn do such a thing? You must be mistaken. The White Devil-"

"- tried to save him. Captain Ray is not to be blamed for this." Johnny spoke emphatically. "Lieutenant- Anavel. I know how this pains you, but Haman Karn leads Zeon in your era as a child's regent. Why would she value Lord Garma's life the way we do? To her he could only be a rival-"

"NO!" Gato shouted. "I will not believe this! Not without hearing it from Commander Karn herself! She is- she lead us through the darkest times Zeon has ever known-" His voice became impassioned, betraying a sorrow whose depth startled Christina. "- I cannot believe she would sabotage the future of Zeon this way. I cannot."

Johnny sighed. "Very well. It is my understanding that there is some security camera footage of the event. I will say no more until I can show it to you."

Gato's was hoarse. "Thank you."

"What are you going to do now?" Christina asked.

Johnny glanced back at her. "The same thing I imagine you're going to do, Lieutenant MacKenzie. Grieve and plan our counterattack. We can do nothing else until the Treize Faction is dealt with."

-X-X-X-

Many hours later, Shin Asuka lay unconscious in a hospital bed tucked into a private room at the Von Braun hospital. He was recuperating from a procedure that was far too late to save his right eye. The doctors were able to clean the wound and bandage it properly, but no more. Shin would never see out of his right eye again.

Rondo's procedure to remove the bullet in her leg went much more smoothly. She was currently sitting at the foot of Shin's bed, crutches leaning against her chair. While no coordinator could regenerate an entire lost organ, like the damage to Shin's eye, regenerating a flesh wound was a far simpler matter. Rondo expected to be walking again within a week.

Despite this, she was not a very happy woman at the moment. Duty had compelled her to leave her room to seek out Shin as quickly after her own procedure as possible. There she had found that the hospital's computers had access to a complete electronic copy of Shin's medical records from a point in the Cosmic Era's history that didn't seem to be too terribly far in his past.

Rondo had insisted upon examining them, so she could feel satisfied that Shin's life wouldn't be endangered by some sort of error. It wasn't a threat to Shin's life that displeased her so much as a disturbing fact she'd found recorded in the basic data about the boy's past. Though Shin fought for ZAFT in his time, he had once been a citizen of Orb. It was not clear from the record why he had left, only when and that he had gone alone.

The idea of any born citizen of her glorious Orb defecting to an utterly inferior nation like PLANT galled Rondo down to her core. She burned to shake the boy and demand an explanation for his utterly inexcusable behavior, but it would be many long hours before Shin regained consciousness. Rondo's was left to seethe quietly, planning strategies that might convince Shin to return to his proper place.

There was a knock at the door. She glanced up to see Mr. Witz and Captain Ray standing in the doorway. Rondo was entirely surprised to see Witz up and around at all, for she regarded Naturals as essentially fragile creatures. Witz's wound was actually a flesh wound no more life-threatening than her own, though a half-inch change in the bullet's trajectory would have ended his life.

Amuro had no injuries to recover from, but there were deep rings under his eyes and a certain filmy sheen to his face that suggested a very long time gone without sleep. He was pushing himself to accomplish something or other in Rondo's absence, something she could only imagine was far too challenging for even a Natural with Amuro's prodigious psychic powers.

"Captain, Witz," Rondo greeted the men. "You'll forgive me if I don't rise to greet you."

Amuro was not so tired that he couldn't smile. "That's quite all right. I'm just glad that you're safe." He paused, frowning as his eyes flicked over Shin's bed. "How bad is it? Will he be able to pilot again?"

"Asuka will pilot again if he wants to. A quantum computer on coordinator settings can compensate for the loss of depth perception."

Amuro tried restating his question so that his real concern would be a bit more obvious. "Does that mean it'd be a good idea for him to pilot again?"

Rondo smirked. "I wouldn't dismiss him from service even in better conditions, if that's what you mean. There's certainly no chance of a man like Asuka wanting to give up over something like this."

"Poor dumb kid." Witz shook his head. He was frowning, very uncharacteristically.

Rondo arched an eyebrow. "You've brought some more bad news for me, have you."

"It's Garma. He didn't make it." Amuro had no particular talent for delivering bad news gently. Instead he preferred to simply deliver it directly and quickly as possible.

Rondo was unsurprised, but angry enough to scowl very deeply. She took one deep breath before she spoke again. "Then we can call Haman Karn a murderer as well as a traitor."

"I'm sorry," Witz said. "I'm really sorry. Johnny knew she was up to something, that's why he asked me to go. Everything just went to hell so fast..."

Rondo was always charmed by Naturals who didn't take their genetic inferiority as license for failure. "I can hardly fault you for failure when she blindsided myself, Mr. Witz. I'm sure you did all that was within your power. Have the Zeon officers in our company been informed?"

Amuro nodded. "We've been briefed on the situation with the Treize Faction and Ed, too." His voice wasn't overly-emotional, merely a little thick, which Rondo found quite admirable.

"And I'm sure you're doing something to prepare for our next run-in with Treize now?" she asked.

"I've found some Anaheim people- some Mobile Suit engineers from my world, I mean," Amuro said. "I'm going to try to replace, upgrade, and repair as many of our suits as possible before Treize's next move happens."

"That's very good, Captain, but I hope you intend to sleep at some point. How long have you been up?"

Amuro mumbled something unintelligible, but evasive. Witz spoke up more clearly. "Too damned long! He's going on twenty-four hours by my count. Order him to get some sleep or he's gonna pass out."

Rondo quite agreed. "For pity's sake, Captain, go get some sleep. We've got casualties enough here already, don't we?"

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

For music I thought I'd recommend Masaaki Endoh's first Enson album. It's basically an album of Endoh covering various anime songs in fascinating ways, but there's an especially good cover of Arashi no Naka de Kagayaite that I listened to quite a few times in writing this chapter.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom

Anavel Gato / Hyaku Shiki (damaged)

Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)

Witz Sou (Casualty) / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Joint Commander) (Casualty) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam

GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)

Strike Rouge

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Heero Yuy / Epyon

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster


	35. Chapter 35

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Stellar meets new friends, but loses her way.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Stellar awoke to the familiar hiss of her sleeping pod's glass hatch rising open. She sat up and yawned, automatically. Her surroundings were unfamiliar. The person who stood before her was new, too. The artificial sleep process inclined her to feel relaxed, so she felt no alarm at this.

The new person seemed about her age and only a little bit taller, though his body was far more powerfully built. His hair was short and dark, but long enough to fall in front of cold eyes. He wore no uniform Stellar could recognize but instead dressed in civilian clothes, simple spandex biker shorts and a loose tank top.

Stellar sat up on her knees, pondering him. "Where is Stellar?" she asked.

"You are aboard the Granshirio with your allies."

Stellar blinked. That didn't sound right to her. She tried to remember when and where she last saw Flay and Shin, who were most definitely her allies, but it was as if her mind dissolved into a red haze when she tried to think of them.

"Where is Flay?" she asked.

"Gone."

"Shin?"

"Not here."

Stellar paused. The boy said nothing more to explain himself.

"Who are you?"

"Heero Yuy."

"Are you Stellar's friend?"

He paused. His voice became softer. "Yes."

Stellar always liked to make a new friend. "Stellar is pleased to meet you! What are we going to do today?"

"I'm going to take you to meet the others."

Her eyes lit up. "More friends?"

"Yes. Follow me."

Heero moved toward the room's exit at a slow, steady pace. Stellar scrambled out of her sleep pod to follow. It did not seem odd to her that she had fallen asleep in her uniform and boots.

Only the room's unfamiliar appearance struck a chord of unease, one that was forgotten once she was in the hallway. Most of the ship corridors she remembered had a certain comforting similarity to them.

Stellar traveled with Heero down a few decks in an elevator, then through a twisty set of corridors. They finally came to a room that was clearly much larger than most on the inside. The door slid open for them automatically. Inside was a recreation room, though it had a dusty and disused look to it.  
Inside, Stellar saw three new boys. One of them seemed about her age and around Heero's height. His hair was also dark but more green than black, with a brightness mirrored by his green eyes. He wore simple civilian clothes, jeans and a white shirt under a red jacket with khaki shoulders.

Green-hair sat cross-legged on the floor in front of a low table, holding what Stellar could just barely recognize as a game controller. On the television before green-hair was a smeary square television screen. Two-dimensional images moved on the screen, dim pixel-drawings of fantastic Mobile Suits. They moved back and forth, dueling with stiff two-frame animated attacks.

The other controller was in the hands of a boy who seemed, though not so old that he was likely to be in charge of anything. He, too, was dressed in civilian clothes, a tight black jacket festooned with buckles and straps over equally tight boot-cut black pants. His hair fell softly about his face in messy brown locks, his eyes a striking violet that sparkled with gentle amusement. Violet-eyes sat on a spartan armchair, his pixel-MS dominating his opponent. The victor's expression verged on embarrassment.

"Stupid controller, it's got to be broken," Green-hair grumbled as his pixel-MS fell prone. Only moments before he had pounded the buttons as if expecting them to work just fine.

"You thought this one was broken so we switched, remember?"

"Then did you set your damage high or something? I can't suck this bad, I've been practicing all day!"

"I thought I gave you a handicap, but... maybe I messed up? We could play something else if you aren't having any fun." It was clear that brown-hair would very much like to play something else that he wouldn't beat green-hair at quite so badly.

"Dude! No! We've only got two games and the other one totally sucks, you don't DO anything."

"It's just an RPG. Have you ever played one? They can be pretty fun..."

"If things don't happen on the screen when I mash buttons then it's not really a game! It's... I don't know, it's like a book or something!"

The third new boy interrupted the argument with a bemused sigh. He was sitting on a couch behind the two gamers, trying to read something on a tablet. "Have you considered just reading a book? I don't see how you two can stand to spend time with such a primitive combat simulation."

This boy struck Stellar as most likely the oldest of the three. He was the tallest and best-built of them, though not quite so knotted with muscle as Heero was. He likewise wore civilian clothes, a skintight black muscle shirt over otherwise nondescript dark civilian pants and knee-high brown boots.

His hair was a slightly darker shade of brown than Violet-eyes's and long enough to obscure his right eye completely. The left eye that narrowed slightly at the other two boys as he lectured them was a striking silver-grey. "Your problem with reading is that you never do it. If you developed a little patience you'd find it just as enjoyable as that awful game."

"Reading takes forever!" Green-eyes protested. "And it's boring! It's always people talking about their feelings or depressing stuff about dead people."

"RPGs are about adventures!" Violet-eyes said, trying to be encouraging. "You get to be a hero and save people and stuff."

"Ehhh... if we got to save a princess, maybe..." Green-hair didn't sound very convinced.

"Quiet!" Heero's near-monotone voice cut through their chatter. His brows were furrowed deeply in annoyance.

The others all turned to glance at him, but quickly found Stellar more interesting.

Green-hair forgot the gaming conversation instantly, instead rising to his feet. "A girl! Finally!"

"That's an Alliance uniform..."

"So she's from your Cosmic Era, then..." One-eye's glance at her held nothing but idle curiosity.

Stellar edged behind Heero, suddenly feeling a bit shy.

"This is Stellar Loussier, Gaia's pilot." After that Heero fell silent and glowered at the others expectantly.

One-eye seemed to understand Heero a little better than the other two. He stood and extended his hand for Stellar to grasp. "I am Allelujah Haptism, Kyrios's Gundam Meister. Welcome aboard."

Stellar grasped his hand lightly and automatically, relaxing a little.

"Why can't you ever just say 'pilot'?" Green-hair asked.

Allelujah eyed him. This was obviously an old argument. "Common Mobile Suits have pilots. Gundams have Meisters."

"Not where I come from, but whatever." Green-hair pushed himself up and grinned brightly at Stellar. He pointed a jaunty thumb at his chest. "I'm Garrod Ran! Hero of destiny, ally of justice, and pilot of the Gundam Divider X." He posed a little, perhaps trying to look cool. Stellar giggled.

"I thought you said you were a mercenary?" Violet-eyes asked.

"I'm a Vulture! Vultures are cool guys. Mercenaries are crap dudes."

"And Gundams have Meisters," Allelujah added, much to Garrod's annoyance.

Stellar giggled. This was beginning to seem like a fun place, though she wished at least Shin could be here, too.

Violet-eyes went last, bashful now that he was the center of attention. "Oh, uh. I'm Kira Yamato. My MS is the Freedom? I don't know if you've heard of it. I think we're from the same place?"

She thought it over for a moment, then shrugged. "Stellar knows Gaia and Abyss and Chaos, but she doesn't know Freedom."

"Oh, that's... I don't know anything about those other MS, so I guess we're even. I'm from Orb, where are you from?"

"Stellar used to be from Phantom Pain, and then she was from the Dogos Gear... now Mister Heero says Stellar is from the Granshirio."

"Oh... um, well, I'm glad you're here." Kira was trying to be polite, but Stellar's demeanor left him feeling badly unnerved. Sharing the room with an Alliance pilot would've been bad enough, but the more Stellar talked, the more it was obvious that something was terribly wrong with her.

"Tell Stellar about Colonel Treize. There's a briefing later." Heero turned to leave, his business apparently finished.

Stellar was visibly crestfallen at Heero's cold, abrupt departure.

"Don't worry about Heero, he's just anti-social," Garrod said. He rather badly wanted the first female he'd seen at all in the Beyonder's world to stay in a good mood. "He never hangs around with us or talks to anybody or anything. Kind of a jerk, if you ask me."

"Mister Heero was nice," Stellar pouted.

"I think Colonel Treize just gives him extra stuff to do, since they're from the same world and everything," Kira said.

Stellar took mild interest in 'Colonel Treize' once she could connect him in some way to a person she regarded as a friend. "Is Colonel Treize nice?"

"I dunno about nice, but he's really cool! He's awesome. He says if we win here we can save the universe and stuff like that!" Garrod said.

"By fighting for the Beyonder?" Stellar asked.

Allelujah was pleased that Stellar seemed to already understand the Gundam War. He couldn't begin to think of how to explain it to her otherwise. "Colonel Treize believes that the Beyonder chose us to come together here and change the fate of the human race."

"Is that good?"

"Not... not always, I guess, but I think Colonel Treize is a good person. He says he wants to end war everywhere forever. I really like the sound of that," Kira said.

"We get to be like super-heroes!" Garrod said.

Stellar frowned. The boys all seemed very confident in their leader, but something in their praise rang hollow to her in a way she couldn't express. She asked a question instead. "So we fight bad guys?"

"Hopefully our opponents will be reasonable men who surrender to us peacefully," Allelujah said. "But, if they won't, we won't have any choice but to fight."

"It seems like the Beyonder could have lined up some really awful people to fight us. Was the Dogos Gear ship you were on a bad place?"

"It was scary for a long time," Stellar said. "But then they started killing each other and it got better."

Her answer clearly alarmed the others.

"That sounds like infighting to me," Allelujah said.

"At least it sounds like they won't gang up on us..." Kira added.

"Yeah, well, you've got nothing to worry abou there," Garrod said. "We're all good guys and you are going to be totally safe."

"Stellar was safe before, sometimes..."

It was clear she had absorbed about as much information as she could easily absorb. Confusion was beginning to set in, but Stellar was not really made to think her way through a problem. Soon she was swept up in a torrent of chatter from Garrod, anyway.

"Hey! We've got downtime until Treize calls us. Do you like video games?"

Stellar's train of thought slowly switched tracks. "Stellar had a friend who liked games..."

"Good! Here, let me show this one, it's awesome! We don't have anything like it where I'm from..." Garrod took Stellar by the hand and all but dragged her in front of the battered television, which he still seemed to find terribly impressive.

Stellar found the game's novelty entirely amusing and diverting. For her the game was largely an exercise in pressing buttons and seeing pretty colors appear on the screen that bore no relation to winning or losing. Garrod was just happy to be playing someone he could actually beat.

Kira was quite content to surrender his controller to Stellar. Instead he sat on the couch and pensively watched Stellar play.

Allelujah sat next to him, doing much the same thing. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I think she might be a Boosted Man," Kira said. His voice was quiet enough that, between Garrod and the TV, he would be easily drowned out. "The Alliance gave them drugs that made them really strong fighters, but..."

Allelujah nodded. "Everything else was stunted. They only needed the ability to fight."

Kira nodded. "Do they do that where you're from?"

Allelujah paused. "Not anymore. Celestial Being ended it."

"It doesn't seem fair to make her fight more, even if it's for a good cause."

"It's probably all she knows how to do. It might be how she survived the infighting ton the Dogos Gear. If she really is a living weapon, then she wouldn't really have a place in a world without fighting. Would she?" Allelujah tried not to betray too much interest in Kira's answer.

"Oh... I don't think so. I don't think you can really program someone to like hurting people. I think if you could give everyone a peaceful world, they'd understand what to do with it."

"You have a very charitable way of thinking, Kira. I hope you're right."

Kira and Allelujah conversed like this often, despite only knowing each other for a few days. Allelujah reminded Kira somewhat of Athrun, while Allelujah found the experience of having any sort of friend completely novel. They shared many opinions and both found Treize's speeches about helping humans transcend war very appealing. To Allelujah it seemed a natural extension of Celestial Being's mission, while Kira saw a chance to make up for what he regarded as the woeful mistakes of his past.

They fell into a companionable silence as the screen's light flickered in front of them. Low-bitrate sounds of violence, barely more than static bursts, filtered through the room. Stellar laughed from time to time and seemed happy, though she didn't understand a lot of Garrod's jokes. They would all fight a good fight in time, but for now, they could enjoy a moment of peace that none of the young pilots gathered there could have understood as normal.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

If you had a hard time guessing that Garrod would show up, it's probably because I _completely_ screwed up my first description of the X Divider's shield. My apologies, I intend to fix it when I do my rounds of revisions at the end of the story.

Allelujah Haptism is from Gundam 00. He wasn't initially in my outline for the story, but reading the requests for an 00 character gave me an idea of what to do with him.

Kira Yamato is from an early part of Gundam SEED Destiny here, but I'm trying to write his personality a little more in-line with his depiction in Gundam SEED. I felt he was a bit livelier in the earlier series.

If the new pilots' opinions of Treize seem a little uncharacteristic... well, yes, something's amiss here. Keep reading.

For music this time I'm recommending JAM Project's "Maximizer" album. JAM Project are known mainly for creating anime theme songs, but Maximizer is the band's second all-original album. Some of these songs feel like themes for anime that don't exist and a few really put me in mind of Gundam Wars.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction  
- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom  
Anavel Gato / Hyaku Shiki (damaged)  
Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)  
Witz Sou (Casualty) / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Joint Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)  
Strike Rouge

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	36. Chapter 36

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Granshirio's commanders hatch their plans. Stellar's friends have many questions, most of which are not answered.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The adults aboard the Granshirio were gathered in a briefing room that Treize had converted into a study. Data pads were arrayed on a bolted-down wooden table, all displaying different document readouts. A terminal by Treize's chair was also displaying Mobile Suit schematics on its screen, ignored for the moment.

Comfortable chairs, the sort ranking officers might have in their private offices, were arrayed in a cleared-out space at the room's center. A filing cabinet was playing the role of makeshift liquor cabinet. Though the ship's selection of spirits was meager, Treize seemed pleased to act as bartender. Treize seemed to thrive on small acts of courtesy and gallantry that a man like Michelo would've viewed as beneath him.

In his way, Treize was rapidly winning over the new adult arrivals to his ship. They were all canny enough to realize what he was doing, flattering their vanity with obsequious manners and sweet red wine, but also all vain enough, in their own ways, to find it entirely pleasing. Treize also liked to ask questions, particularly about the combat ability and temperament of the rival Izumo's forces, and all three were all too happy to provide him with details.

Hours of talking had passed before Treize fetched himself a drink and seated himself in a chair of his own. "I see our enemies are fascinating people. If I may, let me repeat what you've all said in my own words, so you can judge my understanding of our tactical situation."

"Make it quick," Michelo said. "I've heard enough crap I already know today already."

Treize nodded sympathetically, as if Michelo's annoyance was utterly justified. Even for Michelo Chariot, Treize was hard to be genuinely angry with for long. Treize was just too much of a slick bastard and Michelo was inclined to admire the man for it.

"I'll try to be brief. The Izumo is an armed warship from the technologically advance Cosmic Era. Its captain, the Lady Rondo, pilots an exceptionally dangerous Mobile Suit with advanced stealth and ECM capability. The faction's possesses two other potentially dangerous pilots who use high-spec Mobile Suits. Amuro Ray- who I should very much like to meet- and Domon Kasshu, the Shining Gundam's pilot. The other five known pilots affiliated with the Izumo are either of entirely unknown ability, deceased, casualties, or only able to use low-spec machines that are no true threat to our forces in general."

"There is, of course, the possibility of the Izumo receiving reinforcements from the Beyonder," Haman added.

Treize nodded. "Quite true. We can only create contingency plans for dealing with any such unforeseen arrivals. That said, I feel you should all be familiar with our full fighting strength before we continue. As I have mentiioned to you before, there are three more pilots on the Granshirio who will work with us. They all pilot machines I would consider high-spec. The pilots are all seasoned, though I would consider them much too young to be true veterans."

"What about that little girl we had to drag over from the Dogos Gear?" Cima asked.

"I am told by Heero that Miss Loussier is up and about, and could be persuaded to serve our cause. With the right encouragement, of course," Treize nodded toward Michelo.

Michelo grinned. "You mean we need to feed her the right line of bullshit. Don't worry. I've thought up just the thing. You girls just follow my lead." He gestured toward Haman and Cima with a finger before taking another long drink of wine.

Cima shrugged. "You know I'm content to follow your lead, dear."

"If she can be used, that's fine, though we shouldn't expect too much," Haman said. "At best, she's cannon fodder."

"That's not an ignoble role on the battlefield," Trieze said. "My overall plan is to negotiate with Lady Rondo at the appointed time. I have no interest in ship-to-ship combat, so I intend to try and strike a deal with her. I shall offer her some concession in return for her word that her Izumo shall not intervene in the course of the battle directly."

"What if that concession is my head on a platter?" Michelo asked.

"Or mine?" Cima asked.

"Or mine." Haman's displeasure was particularly clear.

"Those deals would not be acceptable... nor do I think Lady Rondo would seriously ask for such a concession, given how hopelessly inferior her Mobile Suit strength is to ours. I think instead she will most likely ask for a location of battle she believes advantageous."

"So why give her any advantage?" Cima asked.

"She'll be grasping at straws. There's no possible battlefield advantage that can negate our machine advantage, tactically, unless the Beyonder intervenes."

"You sound awfully sure about this," Michelo said.

Treize smiled for a moment. He spoke with a confidence that was quiet but obviously unshakeable in its force. "There are few things in this world I shall claim to have completely mastered, but the art of battle is one."

"Big words, little man. We'll see if you're as good as you say." Michelo smiled as he spoke, though. A Gundam Fighter learned in time to tell braggadocio from more earnest assessments of strength. Treize's opinion of himself was deadly earnest. He was either right or a complete lunatic.

Treize continued. "I wish to see Epyon match again with the Shining Gundam in the upcoming battle. That leaves Amuro Ray's unknown unit, the Turn-A, and Lady Rondo's Gold Frame Amatu as serious threats."

"It is my understanding that Amuro Ray is not currently piloting a Mobile Suit with onboard NT systems. If Rondo's damnable energy-draining capabilities could be removed from the field, I believe I could cut him apart easily with my Qubeley's funnels."

"Rondo's thing, what, turns invisible?" Michelo snorted. "That's a cheap gimmick. Neros can handle her."

Haman arched an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Screwing with your opponent's sensors is the oldest trick in the book in the Gundam Fight. Any half-decent Fighter knows how to deal with it. You give me a little help, Garahau, and there's no way that high-and-mighty bitch is surviving."

"My pleasure," Cima said. "Two-on-one is the best kind of fight."

Haman rather liked the thought of Michelo brutalizing Rondo. A cold pleasure lit up her face. "Very well, then. I will rely on you."

Treize seemed quite pleased himself. "I shall devise a way to keep Amuro Ray busy until Lady Haman is able to take the field. The lesser foes I believe can be easily handled by our younger pilots, who can then aid us in eliminating the field's most dangerous enemies."

"Speaking of them... Colonel Treize, I do hope we'll be meeting them before the day is done?" Haman asked.

"Of course, of course. I shall page Heero and he'll have them up very shortly."

-X-X-X-

Garrod was more than ready to leave when Heero appeared at their lounge's door, grim-faced. Stellar had already figured out how to beat him with most of the game's MS, in some cases by just trapping his guy in a corner and using one move over and over again.

"What is Mister Treize like?" Stellar asked, drawing near to Heero's shoulder. Kira almost reached out a hand to pull her back, imagining a vicious reply.

The other boys were shocked to hear Heero's entirely civil response. "Treize is a nobleman. He is highly educated and commands the Organization of Zodiac in my world. He is a gifted pilot and worth following, given these circumstances."

This all went over Stellar's head. "Is he nice?"

Heero paused for a long moment, as if struggling to compose a satisfactory answer. "... yes. He is nice."  
Garrod could not entirely suppress his laughter at this improbable exchange. Al wondered, momentarily, if this might be the moment when the ever-present tension in Heero's body language finally erupted into terrible violence.

At least this time, Garrod was saved by their arrival at their destination. Double doors ahead of them slid open and there stood Treize, taller than the tallest of them and, to a girl of Stellar's narrow life experience, impossibly handsome. She froze in her tracks and stared, an impropriety that Treize coolly ignored.

Treize bowed, taking Stellar's hand and bringing it to his lips in a deeply archaic manner. Stellar was rooted to the spot, pink-faced.

"Welcome aboard, Miss Stellar. Gentlemen," he straightened as he addressed the others, "We have some other new arrivals as well. They are, like Stellar, defectors from the enemy forces. I hope you will welcome them warmly, as allies who share a common cause."

Al saluted in acknowledgment. "Sir." Heero did the same, silently. Garrod kept his hands obliviously buried in his jacket pockets. Kira raised his hand, as if thinking to try and salute, before growing too self-conscious and lowering it. Stellar continued to stare.

Treize gestured for the others to follow him into the meeting room. The younger pilots were not entirely prepared for the intense interest that greeted them as they stepped inside.

"Gentlemen, may I introduce you to the Lady Haman Karn of the Principality of Neo-Zeon, Lieutenant Cima Garahau, also of Zeon, and Michelo Chariot, Gundam Fighter of Neo-Italy. I am told Miss Stellar is already quite familiar with them all, so I shall allow the rest of you to introduce yourselves as appropriate."

The boys had no time to begin. Stellar's eyes had lit upon on Michelo and she had, unexpectedly, begun to scream. Her expression was twisted, her volume ear-splitting.

"Y-you- S-Stellar's friend-!"

Kira wasn't cursed with hesitation this time. "Stellar? H-hey, Stellar, it's okay..." He went to her, trying to calm her (and if need be, restrain her) with his hands on her shoulders. He could tell Stellar was physically much stronger than a Natural her size should be.

Michelo rose from his chair, a figure far less handsome than Treize but no less impressive in his own way. His smile was razor-sharp as he approached Stellar, hands buried deep in his pockets. "Yeah, kid, it's okay. You passed out during the mess back on the ship... you must be confused, if you don't know old Michelo. C'mon, haven't we been on the same side since the beginning of all this?"

Stellar was trembling. "Stellar... Stellar remembers there was fighting and Flay- you wanted to hurt Flay-"

The name struck Kira like clap of thunder. His fingers slackened. "- w-wait, who-"

The sudden recognition wasn't lost on Michelo, who decided to have a bit of fun with it. "Yeah... hey, you knew her, kid? A real high-class girl, pink hair, about this tall? Fought with some outfit called the Earth Alliance?"

"- yes! Yes, that sounds just like her! She's here? She's alive?" Michelo relished the hope that lit up Kira's face.

"Well... she was, kid. She was." Michelo feigned sounding regretful.

The hurt on Kira's face was obvious and raw.

"Stellar's right, I was there when Flay got done in... but see, I was trying to get her outta there. Me and Cima both were. It was pure dumb luck we ran across that kid going nuts in the brig, wasn't it?"

Cima caught on quickly. "Oh, yes. I'll never forget that sight. No wonder poor Stellar passed out... I had to carry her out while Michelo scuffled with that insane boy."

"What boy?" Kira said. His brows were furrowed and his voice was raised. "Who did this?"

"Crazy kid. Wore a big red coat, went on a lot about... what was it, coordinators or something? He was from some place called ZAFT... the name was Asuka. Yeah, that's it. Shin Asuka."

Michelo watched Kira's eyes. He didn't get a spark of recognition, as he hoped but the look he saw smoldering in Kira's eyes was perfectly, wonderfully murderous. It was sure to lead somewhere interesting, whether Asuka had up and died already or not.

"No... no, that's not right!" Stellar was trying to get hold of herself. She thrashed forward against Kira's arms. "Shin is nice! Shin was Flay's friend, too..."

"I'm sure he acted that way when the commanders were around, dear." Cima spoke with pity. "But that type isn't anyone's friend, deep down."

Stellar still felt something was very wrong, but with so many people telling her that she was confused, it was hard to make herself say anything. She looked down and fell silent, the tension in her body going slack.

"I am very sorry for your loss, young man," said Haman. She rose from her chair and strode forward. There was something interesting about the violet-eyed boy, something that nagged at the corners of her consciousness. "The pilots of the Izumo are selfish and short-sighted... you're not the only one they've wronged."

Haman paused, letting her regal dignity have suitable impact. "What is your name?"

"K-Kira. Kira Yamato." He seemed a little stunned her, as Haman expected.

"Yamato? That's an interesting name... tell me, Mister Yamato, are you... a special person, in some way? There's something familiar about you... but obviously, it's impossible that we ever could have met..."

"I, um... I'm a coordinator, but... not a ZAFT coordinator, I'm from Orb, I mean..."

"Are there ESPers in Orb, Kira Yamato? People who can see the future, who can understand things intuitively..." Haman reached out with her psychic senses, exerting a tentative pressure.

She could see Kira react to her, though it was purely untrained and confused. "A... what? I've never heard of anything like that..." Haman could feel his mind snap shut.

She was about to speak again when she was interrupted by the sound of a pained grunt.

It was Al. She hadn't felt anything interesting from him, but it seemed he was having some sort of physical reaction to her. One hand was over his face, only a trace of his silver left eye showing through his fingers.

Haman glanced at his friends. They clearly had no idea what was happening to him.

"Al, man, are you okay?" Garrod asked. "What's wrong?" He reached forward to place a steadying hand on Al's elbow.

Al shook him off, the motion violent enough to send Garrod stumbling back. The thick locks of hair that ordinarily covered the right side of his face parted slightly. A gold eye glittered within, looking directly at Haman.

"There's something in the air here that doesn't agree with me." Al's voice had become curiously threatening.

Haman smiled as she let her pressure recede. "How strange. I do hope it's not me... ah, if you'd give me your name?"

"Hal-" Al's voice choked. He shook his head and stood up again, as if some noxious poison in the air was clearing. He smoothed his hair back into place, the golden eye once more obscured from sight. "- Allelujah Haptism. I'm sorry about that."

"I don't suppose you're an ESPer?" Haman asked.

Al looked distinctly uncomfortable. "No. We don't have those." It seemed like an obvious lie to Haman.

"But you sensed my pressure."

Al's response was barely above a mumble. "I'm sensitive to quantum brainwaves."

Haman momentarily arched an eyebrow. No true Newtype would have such an unnatural half-power. It seemed to her that Al must be something like a Cyber Newtype, whether he was a lab-made mockery or was somehow born defective.

Either way, she wouldn't be able to have the influence over him she might have over this Kira Yamato... though "Hal's" reaction to pressure might prove very interesting on the battlefield.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to upset you. I am myself an ESPer- a Newtype- and I am simply curious to know if others of my kind are here with me."

"Really? You're a Newtype?" Garrod pushed forward. He had found Haman interesting on a prurient level from the moment he saw her, but now she seemed more awe-inspiring.

"Yes. You're familiar with the term?" She glanced at Garrod as if seeing him for the first time. He hadn't responded to her pressure, so he was clearly some sort of Oldtype... though the rare Oldtype who gave her kind the respect they deserved could be useful.

"Yeah! We have Newtypes, they're... like, they're super-aces, they can do anything! I'm not one, but as a crew member of the Freeden, I am sworn to protect Newtypes from harm or exploitation at the hands of the New Earth Federation." Garrod puffed out his chest a little, looking slightly ridiculous.

"The New Earth Federation? You're from the world of the Seventh Space War?" Haman couldn't quite keep her voice down. Suddenly Garrod was the most interesting person in the universe.

Garrod was a little taken aback. "Uh... y-yeah. My name is Garrod Ran and I pilot the Gundam X Divider... "

"A Gundam X!"

Garrod frowned at Haman. "Hey, you're not from After War, are you? I mean... yeah, we have Newtypes, but we don't have Zeon or anything."

"No, I'm not from your world. I am from the Universal Century. But I've learned much about After War, Garrod... tell me, is it widely known, in your world, what caused the end of the Seventh Space War?"

Garrod shrugged. "I"m just a kid so I only know what I've heard. There was a big battle in orbit that made the colonies crash down to Earth. Most of the people alive then died and the Earth's environment was wrecked. The war stopped because no one was left to fight."

Cima's face was transfixed with horror at the thought. "All of the colonies?"

Garrod shrugged. "Well, if there's anybody left up there, they're not talking to anybody on Earth, that's for sure."

Treize seemed fascinated. "The most complete and total form of rebellion against Earth possible. What hatred those colonists must have felt..."

"Stupid," Heero grunted, softly enough that it passed unheard.

"Of course," Haman said. "Of course, people from your world wouldn't know everything..."

Garrod blinked. "W-what?"

"Garrod, the Beyonder has brought a terrible thing here from your world. The end of the Seventh Space War was not merely a spasm of hatred from the colonists. It was caused by a single dreadful weapon system on the moon, called DOME."

She paused to let that sink in. Garrod's face was white as a sheet, as he began to make uncomfortable conjectures about where the Satellite Cannon's power might really come from.

She continued. "For good or ill, Garrod, DOME can only be controlled by a Newtype. Right now, the enemy controls DOME."

Treize quickly picked up Haman's probable train of thought. "And they've got their own Newtype, don't they? The man you call Amuro Ray."

"Are there colonies here, in the Beyonder's world?" Kira asked.

"Yes. The Granshirio's instruments have detected signs of at least half a dozen... all inhabited, I fear, in addition to inhabitants on the Earth." Treize's voice was quite grave.

"All those people..." Garrod was completely serious for the first time anyone on the Granshirio had ever seen.

"It's pretty nasty when you think about it. They could hold the whole planet hostage if they wanted," Michelo added.

"Or just use DOME's weapon systems against us." Cima's tone was more pessimistic.

"What kind of person is Amuro Ray?" Al asked. "Is he likely to use something like DOME, given the chance."

"He's a self-righteous butcher and a dog of the Federation." Haman was blunt, her distaste for him obvious.

"I only know him from the impressions conveyed by our new allies," Treize added. "But based on what I know, I would imagine him cold-hearted and remorseless. Not the type to use power foolishly, or perhaps for his own sake, but the type that would hold nothing back to preserve himself."

Stellar was trying to reconcile the things she heard with what she knew of Amuro Ray. She had never met him, only heard about him from others, for all that they had briefly been on the same ship. "Stellar's friends didn't like him..."

"We have to stop him!" Garrod clenched a fist in determination.

"When I was with the Izumo I attempted to take control of DOME, so its power could not be used unwisely," Haman said. "The others denied me and I was forced to run for my life. If not for Colonel Treize and the Granshirio, I would be dead, and there would be no one to stop them."

"We left around the same time, though this is the first I've heard about DOME," Cima said. "I just wanted to get out of there before people started knifing each other in the back. I know a nest of vipers when I see it."

"Figured I'd go along for the ride," Michelo added.

"Our ambition, gentlemen, was always to win the Beyonder's war and use his prize to end war as we know it. Now, though, it seems there is an even more immediate reason to fight. When the time comes, can I still count on you all?"

"Yes! Those people are monsters, someone has to stop them!" Kira said.

"There is no other responsible course of action," Al added.

Stellar only nodded, quietly. Fighting sounded like the right thing to do, though part of her was still uncertain.

"Mission accepted," Heero finished.

"Very good. You're all dismissed. Spend the next few days preparing yourselves and your Mobile Suits for action. The Izumo's crew are supposed to make diplomatic contact with us in a few days, but I expect little to come of that," Treize said.

One by one, the young pilots began filing out of the room. Treize could hear their chatter begin once they were mere meters clear of the door.

"You understated how interesting your pilots were," Haman said as she returned to her seat.

"I thought it best to let them speak for themselves," Treize replied.

"So what's all that crap you said about wanting to end war?" Michelo asked.

"What it sounds like, I'm sure. Nonsense to keep his young idealists in line," Cima answered.

Treize shook his head. "No. I am absolutely sincere when I say that I wish to end war as we know it by winning the Beyonder's Gundam War. You must simply remember, Michelo Chariot, that you are from a world where war as we know it is no more."

Michelo regarded Treize incredulously for a few moments, then began to laugh. Haman and Cima felt rather left out of the joke.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Gundam SEED Destiny viewers know that there were some scenes shot in that series using techniques that classic UC series used to indicate that someone was a Newtype. This sparked furious debate among fans regarding whether Kira was a Newtype or not. Eventually the director said the scenes were just homages and Kira was "just" an Ultimate Coordinator, but I thought it might be interesting to interpret things more liberally for the purposes of this story.

In Gundam 00, the only character whose "quantum brainwaves" prompt reactions from Al is Soma. It's not clear if this is because he only responds to Soma, or she's just the only other person around with quantum brainwaves. This is also another case of the scenes being shot using "Newtype effects" from older series. As with Kira, I decided to interpret Al's sensitivity liberally to make things more interesting.

For music, I'm going to recommend Kageyama Hironobu's solo album "Cold Rain." The title track is wonderfully angsty and Gundammy. The rest is pretty good, too, though I like JAM Project's version of Crying for the Earth better.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction  
- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / Zaku II Garma Zabi Custom  
Anavel Gato / Hyaku Shiki (damaged)  
Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)  
Witz Sou / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
GP-02A Gundam Physalis (damaged)  
Strike Rouge

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divier

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	37. Chapter 37

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Izumo begins to regroup. Rondo has a question for Shin. The Zeon aces reluctantly move on.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

None of the hospital staff in Von Braun were familiar with coordinators or their ability to swiftly recover from injury. Long after Shin felt he was perfectly capable of leaving, the hospital staff made every effort to try and keep Shin in his room.

There was a point in time when Shin would have simply forced his way through them, but now that seemed unwise. Shin didn't want to do anything that might disincline Domon Kasshu from teaching him the secret of a Gundam Fighter's ferocious strength. Instead he simply shouted and argued with them, with terrifying stubbornness.

The situation wasn't resolved until Rondo got involved and vouched that, yes, Shin really was probably ready to be discharged. The doctors and nurses changed their tune once an adult was involved, much to Shin's exasperation. Only then he was allowed to collect his uniform and prepare to go.

At least, this is what Shin thought was going to happen. Rondo had no intention of doing him a favor without making him pay for it.

She waited for him by the lobby door, his discharge papers in hand. "Asuka. There's one thing I want you to do for me, before I let you go off to play hero."

"What?" Shin's tone was guarded. He disliked Rondo and couldn't possibly imagine trusting her. While she was nothing like the one emir of Orb he'd met, he still imagined that a terrible inclination toward cowardice and treachery lurked in her heart.

"Tell me why you left Orb."

"W-what? What makes you think-"

"I read your medical chart. I'm also doing you a rather substantial favor. So tell me, why did you leave Orb?"

Shin refused to make eye contact with her. His answer was half-mumbled. "My family died."

"That's not a reason. You could have gotten a job, gone to an orphanage, or joined our military. Why did you really leave Orb?" Command rose in Rondo's voice.

It made Shin furious. "You killed my family!"

"- excuse me?"

"Not- not just you!" he said. "All of you! You stupid, spineless, honorless cowards! You just... just argued with each other and rolled over when the Alliance wanted to turn Orb into a battlefield! You didn't care what happened to your own people!"

"You're from about two years in my future, so..." It took Rondo only a few moments to figure out when Shin's family was probably killed. "... ah, yes, Athha's highly principled idiocy. You were young, so I'll forgive you for thinking that I didn't do everything in my power to oppose him, or that all the emirs supported his perfectly insane beliefs. I have never cared to sacrifice my followers' lives on the altar of high principle."

Shin had no idea what to say to that. Rondo's words alone weren't enough to move his heart, which was too-long hardened by the intensity of his hatred and sorrow. Her behavior entirely broke with the stereotype he'd created of Orb's cowardly leaders.

Rondo's brows furrowed. "What I will not forgive, Shin Asuka, is the way you betrayed your country in its hour of need. When Orb most needed the service of the valiant and honorable, you abandoned it to go serve a dying society of obsessive madmen!" Her voice rose and rose as she spoke, until it ended on a tone of the bitterest rebuke.

"ZAFT took me in-"

"I would have taken you in! Any number of neutral nations would have taken you in! But no, you willingly went to the country of Patrick Zala and Rau Le Creuset! Your strength could have served Orb, Shin, you could have helped me restore it to glory and honor. Instead you chose to abandon us!"

The accusation in Rondo's voice hit Shin like a hammer blow. Appeals to emotion often swayed him and Rondo was skilled in the sort of rhetoric that was frankly heard more often in the PLANTs than in Orb's territories. "I didn't know anything about you! I didn't have a choice! I needed to fight to make things better-"

"Don't tell me such lies, you insolent child! When your masters at ZAFT tell you to spill the blood of your countrymen, will you do it?"

Shin gritted his teeth. "I already have and I don't regret anything!"

"Tell me how you make things better by slaughtering Orb's fighting men! Tell me how you're any different than the Alliance butchers that killed your family and who knows how many others!"

"You just- you just don't understand-"

Rondo signed Shin's discharge papers, pen scraping harshly against the paper. "You stupid creature! Get out of my sight!"

Shin bolted, red-faced. He knew he should be furious with Rondo, but somehow he wasn't. He was angry that she'd found out his personal history and angry that he hadn't defended himself better, but there was no rage at Rondo within him. He couldn't understand why and this bothered him more than anything she'd actually said to him.

-X-X-X-

Garma Zabi's unfortunate death on the operating table and Flay Allster's brutal murder aboard the Dogos Gear left the crew of the Izumo in an unusual position. For the first time, their dead had left bodies behind.

This forced a realization among the surviving pilots. They had never mourned any of their fallen allies. Before there had either been no time or nothing left to mourn. Their current situation was quite different. The Izumo had docked at Von Braun, so the crew could reunite with personnel already in the city.

Amuro had already asked sent word out that he wanted everyone to meet him at Anaheim's facility at some point before the agreed-upon summit with Treize to deal with unit repairs, upgrades, and reassignments. No one was inclined to question this, given their wretched condition after the last few battles, but Johnny and Gato decided that they had one request to make.

The pilots who had come down from the Izumo were staying at a hotel that enthusiastically welcomed Anavel Gato and Johnny Ridden and was willing to tolerate Christina and Domon for their sake. They gathered in a small hotel meeting room to patch a conference call through to their allies working at Anaheim and the hospital, where Rondo was making final arrangements.

Rondo had regained her composure after her confrontation with Shin earlier, though she was still annoyed that the boy had gotten under her skin so badly. "Gentlemen. I see you've made it into the city?"

Johnny favored her with a salute. "All present and accounted for, ma'am."

"It's good to see you all again," Amuro said. He and Witz were taking the call from one of the break rooms. "You're clear on where to find me, right?"

"Yes, Captain. Before we get into resupplying, though, Lieutenant Gato and myself felt that there was a request we needed to make."

"Lord Garma must have a proper funeral," Gato said.

Amuro's reaction was complete confusion. "Wait, what-"

Rondo ended up talking over him, due to the inevitable time-lag involved in visual conference calls. "I'm glad you brought this up. The hospital's been asking me what we wanted to do with the body."

"Gato and myself are willing to handle the funeral arrangements, but we feel it must be a public ceremony and it must recognize his dignity as a member of the Zabi family. Anything less would dignify Haman Karn's betrayal," Johnny said.

"And if we're having a memorial for Garma, we might as well hold a memorial for everyone we've lost. Ed, Loran, Lowe, even that poor girl Michelo killed on the Dogos Gear. They deserve to be remembered," Christina said.

"I believe a public ceremony can be arranged. Sympathy for Garma was apparently quite high here," Rondo said.

Amuro looked openly dismayed by the flow of the conversation. He was deep in work and could only regard the prospect of a formal ceremony as an unnecessary distraction.

"I just- I'm just not sure this is the best use of our time," Amuro said. Gato scowled at him, which is entirely what Amuro expected.

Witz punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Come on, man, have a heart. Even where I'm from people still have funerals."

"Captain, I understand your concerns. We'll try to make sure the ceremony doesn't interfere with your work or take up more than half a day's time."

"Our comrades deserve honorable eulogies, if we are to view our struggle against the Beyonder as an honorable battle." Domon's tone allowed no room for dissent.

Amuro not only gave up, but felt bad for even protesting. "You're right. You're all absolutely right. Take care of it, I'll find some way to make the schedule work on my end."

"That's what I like to hear. Lieutenant Gato, Commander Ridden, do keep in touch about any customs that need to be observed. I'll start taking care of things on my end."

Rondo hoped the dose of normalcy would help galvanize the crew for another round of stressful combat. If it also moved Zeon loyalists or other citizens of Von Braun to take up the Izumo's cause as their own, all the better. She immediately began planning the affair for the last day of the three-day truce. The first two would be given over to rest and Mobile Suit preparations at Anaheim.

-X-X-X-

"With all due respect, Captain Ray, I see no need for this. My Zaku II served me admirably in the battle against the Frost Brothers and I am sure it will be adequate enough when we fight Treize's men."

A bewildering array of Mobile Suits were kept in Anaheim's low-gravity lunar hangars, some stored directly in hangar bays while others were in environmentally sealed containers, as if ready to be shipped out at a moment's notice. Johnny paid none of them any heed.

Amuro was ready to argue the point. He'd spent some time going through Anaheim's inventory and helping them categorize the bewildering array of Mobile Suits, weapons, and other spare parts they'd gathered together in the Beyonder's Earthsphere.

"Commander, it's not your survival I'm worried about. It's effectiveness on the field. We're fighting at least one machine with super-dense armor. You need a heavier loadout than a Zaku II can support," Amuro said.

"I could be persuaded to use another Zeon mass-production model."

"Would you be open to using something more modern-"

"To me, Captain, the One Year War is modern. I will not fight to the best of my ability if forced to use something unfamiliar."

"I think you're underestimating yourself, but... well, we'll see what you make of this." Amuro stopped outside of one of the sealed suits. The carton had a faded Principality of Zeon emblem on the outside. Amuro attached a personal data pad to the metal carton's electronic locks and initiated the opening sequence.

The carton's mechanized front panel slid up slowly, delicate industrial robot arms helping guide it. Within the carton lay a Mobile Suit that resembled the Zaku II, but larger and heavier, with massive thrusters on its back and legs. It was painted in rank-and-file Zeon green and gray, but lightly, as if those colors weren't expected to be permanent.

"Ah, a Gelgoog." Johnny sounded quite satisfied. "I believe I can work with this, Captain."

"I think it's a High-Mobility Type. I'm not expert on Zeon One Year War ordinance, but it's definitely not a standard model or a Gelgoog Cannon," said Amuro. "It seems to be factory-sealed. You'll need to be careful when you tune it, I think at highest settings it goes well beyond what Oldtype reflexes can handle."

"I don't mean to sound vain, Captain Ray," Johnny said. "But would Anaheim have the resources to spare for recoloring the unit? I would feel cowardly piloting this in anything but my proper ace's colors."

Amuro smiled. He'd expected something like this. "I already checked into it. Help the Anaheim people register your colors correctly and I think we can turn it around on time. As for your Zaku... " Amuro paused as Johnny glanced at him more directly. "... would it bother you if we offloaded your old machine here? The Izumo's hangar space is limited, we really don't need to carry around units we're not using."

Johnny frowned. He disliked the idea of retiring his old machine, which had shown him more than his fair share of glory, to such an opportunistic caretaker. "The idea is difficult for me."

"I can understand getting attached to a machine that's served you well, but-"

"It's not entirely the machine." Johnny tilted his head up, toward the Gelgoog's slumbering monoeye. "What it represents, perhaps. The Zaku II is a beautiful piece of technology. It's the cornerstone of Zeon's power. To retire it because the Beyonder's flooded his war game with exotic MS bearing absurd weapons loadouts is..."

Amuro felt he understood. "It feels a bit like retreating, doesn't it?"

"Yes. Exactly."

-X-X-X-

Gato was far more open to the idea of piloting an updated machine from an era beyond his own. He'd liked piloting the Hyaku Shiki and felt the unit's high quality played no small role in his survival. His GP-02A, much like the Hyaku Shiki, was far too damaged to be repaired on time, anyway.

Amuro ran Gato through a few simulations to figure out what he'd reasonably be able to operate. Gato was most familiar with the classic Zeon and Federation cockpit layouts. Amuro advanced him through major steps forward and found nothing degraded Gato's performance until he got to cockpit layouts from around 0090 or so. That was when Anaheim started significantly overhauling its interfaces, so it made a good cutoff point.

Amuro decided to try outfitting Gato with a unit of 0087 vintage. He'd already successfully piloted the Hyaku Shiki, after all. There were quite a few Gryps-era suits in storage at Anaheim. Gato quickly developed a preference for one particular suit, the Marasai.

Gato was a methodical man and he insisted on a live lunar test of the new suit before he committed to using it. Amuro was content to let Gato put the unit through its paces on the lunar surface, observing from one of Anaheim's control rooms.

"These readouts are very good. Your numbers are actually already better than the average data we pulled from the GP-02's black box."

"I should hope so. The computer systems in this unit are much improved, particularly the targeting. There's better integration between the mechanical and vernier-aided movement subsystems, too."

"I checked around, but there don't seem to be a lot of custom parts compatible with the Marasai. Nothing that Anaheim has on hand now, anyway. We can tune the Marasai to your specifications, but otherwise you'll be using a mass-production unit."

"That's quite satisfactory. Prototypes like the GP-02 are hardly my preference," Gato paused, before speaking again. "I am surprised, Captain Ray, that you're so clearly knowledgeable about a machine of obvious Zeonic origin."

Amuro's smile became strained. "Ah, well... Zeon's designs are excellent mechanical engineering, but... to be perfectly honest with you, Lieutenant, the Marasai is a Federation unit."

"WHAT?"

"The V-Project build base tends to produce inadequate mass-production units. Not so much in terms of power, as... they tend to be more expensive to build than an equally good Zeon unit. More complicated parts, less intuitive interface, harder to train pilots for them, things like that," Amuro said. "Anaheim knew that, too. It poached Zeon design talent from the mess left over after the Treaty of Granada was signed. By 0087 the Federation was buying units based on refinements of the Zaku II line. That's where the Marasai comes from, basically."  
Gato's response was a series of choking noises. While he'd seen Federation soldiers training in captured Zaku IIs and other Zeonic units during his time undercover, he'd never dreamed that the Federation was simply preparing to buy the heart of Zeon technological innovation for its own filthy uses.

Amuro felt a little bad for mentioning it. He decided not to tell Gato that the Marasai was a Titans unit. That would mean explaining the Titans to him and the thought of telling Gato about that was simply depressing. Especially since, Amuro suspected, men of undying patriotic zeal like Gato were probably how the Titans ended up forming in the first place.

"Shameful," Gato finally spat. "It is absolutely shameful that Zeon would have her interests betrayed so callously by her own. At least... at least it puts you in a position to be of proper use, Captain."  
Amuro could tell that Gato was trying to calm himself down. He appreciated the effort, if nothing else. "We'll have time to change the paint job, if you'd like. It's in its default colors now... we could put it into your ace colors, maybe?" It seemed impossible to Amuro that a Zeon pilot of Gato's skill didn't have his own ace colors.

Gato was a man who swelled with pride at virtually all things related to his Zeon military career... except his ace colors. Gato had foolishly made the mistake of letting the officer recognizing his achievement pick them, out of fear of being thought arrogant if he picked something too flashy. The officer, naturally, was concerned only with assigning an unusual and high-contrast color combination.

Where a man like Johnny Ridden had ace colors that were nearly more famous than his own achievements, Gato had ended up with a perfectly wretched combination of olive drab and vivid cobalt blue. He'd piloted his custom Gelgoog with pride through the end of the One Year War, but had never actually liked looking at the thing very much.

"I haven't used my ace colors since the War," Gato said, which was basically honest. "This isn't the time or place for them. No, give this Marasai standard Zeon green. In a better world, those would have been its intended colors."

"That's simple enough. Consider it done."

Amuro suspected he wouldn't care for Gato's definition of a "better world," so he didn't press the issue otherwise. Besides, Johnny would probably find the Marasai's Zaku-like appearance, in Zaku-like colors, somewhat comforting. Their retreat in the face of the Granshirio's super-units was not yet a total rout.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

UC canon seems silent on the issue of whether Zeon aces pick their colors or have them assigned. I decided to interpret things the way I did in this chapter basically because I found the idea amusing. While it's easy to imagine Char Aznable picking his own ace colors, I doubt anyone would particularly want Cima Garahau's (or, well, Gato's).

My music recommendation for this chapter will be Kamelot's The Fourth Legacy. It doesn't so much fit this chapter, which is mostly down-time, but Kamelot's particular breed of power metal suits writing Gundam Wars quite well.

-X-X-X-

- DOGOS GEAR & IZUMO White Faction

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / Impulse (damaged)  
Witz Sou / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Strike Rouge

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divier

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	38. Chapter 38

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Shin thinks about what he's doing with his life.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Shin had aggravated the wounds around his right eye by going so long without treating them. The skin growing back wasn't healthy. Instead, it was a thick and insensitive mass of scar tissue that marred the entire top-right of his face. Shin found the sight of himself revolting now.

He hadn't thought of how he'd face the world with the burden of his damaged face. For now, he was simply dodging the question. He'd left the hospital with bandages still covering the damaged top-right of his face. Navigating the strange lunar city of Von Braun alone was difficult enough. It would be impossible if he was too revolting to be able to ask directions from anyone.

Shin had never thought himself a particularly vain person, but now he was finding out differently. On some level he knew that being a coordinator meant being born with a certain intrinsic perfection. Even if you weren't the best person in the world, and Shin knew he wasn't, at least your appearance was exactly what your parents wanted.

Shin had lost that, too. The upper-right quadrant of Shin's face would forever be covered in a hideous reminder of his failure to stop Michelo and save Flay. Doctors had tried to talk to him about plastic surgery, but no operation could restore his original appearance. Shin had no use for half-measures.

The Anaheim facility proved easy enough to find, though it was a much longer walk than Shin had anticipated. He actually felt a little tired when he reached his destination, much to his annoyance. He was waved quickly into the facility's great hangar complex once he gave his name to a receptionist.

Amuro also proved easy enough to find, drinking coffee and giving instructions to some younger-looking engineers. The room overlooked a large hangar bay filled with sealed MS cartons and a wild melange of unsorted MS from an untold multiplicity of worlds.

Amuro noticed Shin right away. "Ah! Shin, it's good to see you up and about again."

"Thanks," Shin half-mumbled. His question was much louder, though. "Can you fix Impulse?"

Amuro shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I'm sorry."

"What's the problem?"

"It's Impulse's core block system. The Core Splendor is damaged to the point where we'd need to completely re-build the parts that attach it to the top and bottom flyers."

"And you can't do that?"

"We could, but not in time for you to sortie against Treize's forces. It'd take weeks to finish the parts and probably a month for installation and testing."

"Wuh..." Shin was nearly speechless. For a moment, he began to act his age. "Then what am I supposed to do? I'm cleared for combat, I can't be sidelined!"

Amuro did his best to defuse Shin's oncoming bout of temper. "Anaheim has some Cosmic Era suits on hand. Is there anything here you can recognize?"

He handed a data pad over to Shin. A long list of the categorized C.E. suits in Anaheim's possession was there. Shin flipped through it, his petulant expression becoming annoyed.

"Everything here sucks!" Shin thrust the pad back at Amuro, brows furrowed.

"Could you explain how it, uh, sucks?"

"Those suits are all old. There's not even a ZAKU or a GOUF there. If Impulse couldn't stand up to Epyon, there's no point in using any of that junk."

Amuro blinked at Shin's mention of terms that he had to dismiss as coincidentally similar, however improbable that coincidence might be. "Well, we've still got a few options. There's a wing for unidentified MS here, we might turn something up there."

"How big is it?"

Amuro thought for a moment. "There's about a hundred suits there, give or take."

Shin stared. "We don't have time for that!"

"Well, what about Strike Rouge?"

"What about it?"

"Well? Could you pilot it?"

"It's pink!" Shin protested.

"Oh, come on. We can change the colors, if that's your only problem with it."

"Well... yes, but..." Shin groped for some reason why Strike Rouge was the worst of all possible options. "... it's an Orb suit! I can't pilot an Orb suit."

"Why not?"

Shin silently scowled at Amuro.

Amuro was feeling very put-upon. "Well? I'm asking you a question. Why can't you pilot an Orb suit? Is it something about the controls?"

"Look, are there any other options? Anything at all."

Amuro frowned. He hadn't wanted to tell Shin about this, but it looked like he might not have any choice. Shin was by far the most intractable of the pilots he'd dealt with so far. "Well... we do have a box with your name on it."

"Really? What is it?"

"No, I mean... that's exactly what it is. In the unsorted wing, I found an MS carton with your name and a model number on it. I'm thinking we'd need some ZAFT security codes to get into it."

Amuro handed his data pad back over Shin, this time displaying some Anaheim stock photographs of the mysterious carton. It was made of a dull black metallic substance with "SHIN ASUKA ZGMF-X42S" embossed on the front.

Shin blinked at the photographs. "I... I really don't know what this is. The "X" means it's an experimental high-spec unit and the S means it's Second Stage... 42 would mean it's a series 2 all-purpose unit, but at Academy they told us the all-purpose units weren't ready yet."

"'Second Stage'? Care to tell me a little more about it?"

Shin could not quite look Amuro in the eye. "It's classified..."

"Shin, I've already been through Impulse's blueprints. I already know more about ZAFT engineering than any other Natural in existence. More details would only help me understand your situation better."

Shin couldn't argue with that. "The Second Stage was the formal name for ZAFT's next generation of MS development. The idea was to create a new like of MS that were completely superior to the old First Stage units... uh, that was stuff like the GINNs the Anaheim guys have found."

Amuro nodded. "Okay... so what do the digits in the Second Stage model numbers indicate?"

"Unit type. Impulse is X56S, so the '5' means it's a Silhouette System unit and the '6' just means it's the Series 6 Silhouette System design. Gaia is X88S so that's ground-type, Series 8."

"Hm. Well, could the X42S be from your future? Maybe it's a custom unit ZAFT developed for you?"

"That doesn't make any sense. I mean, maybe if it was Third Stage, but the Second Stage's been in the works for a long time. They started the all-purpose type last, so that would've been in production when I was still going through Academy. Why would they build some kid a custom unit?"

"Did the ZAFT Academy do aptitude testing? If you tested well early, then the ZAFT brass could have been eying you since you enrolled. If they were, they probably wouldn't tell you about it. They'd probably rather have you feel grateful for earning your units, even if the rests didn't really mean anything."

"I don't know that I can buy that," Shin said. "I mean, why bother? ZAFT doesn't have anything to hide."

"I doubt that. Every government ends up doing things it'd rather not have anyone know about, especially when it comes to military spending. I imagine ZAFT was preparing for some sort of war, right?"

"What? No," Shin's denial was immediate but confused. "The Second Stage stuff was just self-defense."

Amuro glanced back at Shin, his expression incredulous. "All of those new MS designs, and you honestly believe ZAFT wasn't preparing for a war? I'm sorry, Shin, but that strikes me as extremely unlikely. A country doesn't completely refresh its arsenal if it's expecting nothing. It certainly wouldn't be setting aside elite units for non-veteran pilots."

"So what do you think was going on?" Shin asked. His tone was highly skeptical.

"My guess would be that ZAFT has some reason to think that some other power it perceives as a constant threat has become vulnerable," Amuro said. "ZAFT wants to exploit that while it can, so it's spent the past few years building up militarily and talking about peace just enough to keep its neighbors mollified. Once there's a sufficient inciting incident, it'll begin escalating its responses until ZAFT appears caught up in some sort of global crisis. From there, whoever's calling the shots at ZAFT can start trying to seize control of whatever he or she happens to want."

Shin opened his mouth, ready to argue with Amuro in defense of his adopted homeland. He hesitated momentarily, though. Even though there was no possible way Amuro could know the specifics of what Shin had been doing before the Beyonder kidnapped him, Amuro's theory seemed to describe the Alliance's theft of the Second Stage prototypes and ZAFT's response all too perfectly.

A female voice, cackling smugly, confirmed Shin's worst fears. "Listen to that! Not even from the Cosmic Era and he's guessing things perfectly. I suppose Newtypes can predict more than just the future."

"Oh, Rondo. I didn't see you come in."

"You were busy throwing pearls before red-coated swine," Rondo sneered. "So where's your fierce denial of the obvious facts, Mister Asuka?"

"They're not obvious," he muttered. "The Chairman wouldn't let stuff like that happen."

"Who's the Chairman in your era?" Rondo asked.

"Gilbert Durandal."

Rondo's expression began at horror and ended at contempt. "Gilbert Durandal! I should have known Canaveral was too sane to last long up there. I know Durandal by reputation, Asuka, and this is exactly how he operates. He's a sociopath obsessed with eugenics and nothing less than a personal confidant of the butcher Rau Le Creuset."

Shin grimaced. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with Rondo again. "Well, it doesn't explain the issue with the prototypes..."

"Core block systems confer no combat advantage on a unit using them, while tripling all associated costs and doubling manufacture time," Amuro said. "The only benefit of adding a core block system is one of propaganda. The mid-air combination says to the enemy 'See, look how skilled our pilot is' and to allies it says, 'Take heart, our best and brightest are supporting you.'"

Rondo and Shin both listened to him. Rondo's expression was smug, while Shin's was growing more uncomfortable by the second.

He continued, "Shin, you don't want to hear this, but I'm betting you were selected to fulfill a propaganda role very early in your career at Academy, once it was clear that you were skilled enough to complete a mid-air combination. You were given the Impulse as a unit to train you for your role as a propaganda mascot in the coming role. Once you demonstrated total mastery of the Impulse and total loyalty to whatever ZAFT wanted you to think your cause was, your benefactor probably intended to give you the X42S. I'd bet it's also a propaganda unit, but it's probably a much more powerful design. Maybe it's meant as a hero to inspire or a monster that strikes fear into your enemies. It doesn't really matter, Shin. You and that Mobile Suit would be used to tell whatever story that ZAFT wanted people to believe. The fact that you're so young and an immigrant would just make that story more touching."

Shin was utterly speechless.

"That happened to you, too, didn't it?" Rondo asked.

"The first half," Amuro admitted. "The One Year War ended and I turned on the Federation before they got around to the second."

"I thought you were a Federation pilot?" Rondo asked.

"Nominally. The Londo Bell's an autonomous unit and doesn't answer to the Federation chain of command. They'd turn me into a butcher otherwise, I'm sure."

Shin was soaking in the enormity of what he'd been told. Amuro was convincing in a way that no Cosmic Era speaker could be, since he had no obvious bias to serve. The more Shin thought about it, the more he began to have the suffocating feeling that he'd narrowly escaped a trap that was destined to ensnare another Shin Asuka.

That other Shin Asuka was probably content aboard the Minerva with his friends, nursing hurts that now felt ages old and believing whatever convenient thing he was told. That other Shin Asuka would probably never face a personification of human evil as relentlessly strong as Michelo Chariot and would probably never meet a Rondo Mina Sahaku or an Amuro Ray who would tell him things he wasn't supposed to hear. That other Shin Asuka would probably pilot the X42S and do exactly as he was told, killing indiscriminately until ZAFT ruled a world that was no more just than it ever was before.

The one-eyed Shin Asuka of the Beyonder's present did not want to become that other Shin Asuka. Shin wanted to avenge injustice, which he had to believe is all any Shin Asuka would ever want. Michelo Chariot had simply changed his idea of injustice. Now it seemed less to be the result of corrupt bureaucracy than the terrible consequence of letting powerful, evil men do as they pleased. ZAFT had done that before, by letting Patrick Zala's racist faction seize control. How could he be sure it wouldn't happen again, even if Chairman Durandal wasn't an evil man?

"I don't want to open it," Shin said.

"Pardon?" Amuro asked.

"The container. I don't want that Mobile Suit, even if my name is on it." Shin was emphatic.

"Then what are you going to pilot?" Amuro asked.

"Maybe... if we could find some better weapons for the Strike Rouge- and fix the colors- then maybe..."

Amuro pulled Strike Rouge's blueprints up on his data pad, clicking through a variety of views and close-ups as he thought. "Hm. It looks like it uses a variable mission pack system? Swapping out modified backpacks to give you different hardpoint configurations?"

Shin felt lucky that it was a pile of technobabble he understand. "Uh- yeah, basically."

"Well, we've still got the Sword and Blast Silhouette packs. Let's say we pull the weapons off of them and pull the- what's this called, the Aile Pack? Right, we pull that off Strike Rouge and modify it to carry the leftover Impulse armaments. That shouldn't be too difficult to pull off in a few days, we can cannibalize Impulse for spare parts. Strike Rouge would have the right power outputs for Impulse's weapons, wouldn't it?"

Shin's eyes widened as Amuro demonstrated his idea, pulling together the Aile Pack's schematics and segments of the Sword and Launcher Silhouette packs. Remarkably, it seemed feasible to cram them all together. "Yeah, it would. That's pretty much standard across all Mobile Suits. Impulse's weapons might drain Strike's battery faster, even with the extender, but I can deal with that."

"I'm impressed, Captain," Rondo said. "Do you really think you can jury-rig an Integrated Weapon Striker Pack in just a few days?"

"'Integrated Weapon'- mm, no, I don't like that. "Impulse Weapons Striker Pack" is what we'll call it. That's much more descriptive." Amuro was elaborating the rough design with strokes of his stylus.

"Is there anything I can do?" Shin asked. His problems had suddenly gone from intractable to basically solved. He was unsure how to react.

"Mm? No, not until we're ready to test it out. Go get some rest for now," Amuro said. His voice was a little distracted. The design process had begun to absorb him.

"Right. Then- I'm leaving, I guess." Shin felt the compulsion to salute, but he doubted that Amuro would care and he didn't want to give Rondo that sort of validation. So instead, he simply backed toward the door, then turned and left.

"I can't believe you got through to him," Rondo said.

Amuro didn't look up from what he was doing. "Shin never struck me as especially unreasonable. He just needs to be taken seriously."

"You're much too charitable, Captain. Now, tell me- can that brilliant mind of yours come up with a way to fit one of your Minovsky Reactors into my Gold Frame?"

Amuro stared at her as he processed the new request. "Um. Rondo, I really don't think that's possible. Gold Frame's chassis probably isn't shaped right for it-"

Rondo slid an arm around Amuro's shoulders, which he found more than a little strange. "I didn't say it would be easy, Captain, but I can assure you that I'd be very grateful..."

Shin was already in the elevator by the time Rondo had fully occupied Amuro's divided attention. He'd taken off his red ZAFT greatcoat, carrying it loosely over one shoulder. Shin wasn't entirely sure that he ever wanted to put it back on.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Model number: MBF-02

Code name: Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Unit type: modified prototype all-purpose multi-mode mobile suit

Manufacturer: Anaheim Electronics

Operator: Izumo Faction

Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso

Dimensions: head height 17.72 meters

Weight: max gross weight 64.8 metric tons

Armor materials: unknown

Powerplant: ultracompact energy battery, power output rating unknown

Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; Phase Shift (PS) armor; hardpoints for mounting Striker packsFixed armaments: 2 x "Igelstellung" 75mm anti-air vulcan gun, fire-linked, mounted in head; 2 x 'Armor Schneider' combat knives, stored on hip armor; MMI-RG59V mobile shield, mounted on left arm; 2 x RQM60 "Flash-Edge" beam boomerang, stored on IWSP, hand-carried in use; 2 x MMI-710 "Excalibur" anti-ship sword, stored on IWSP, can be combined into one sword, hand-carried in use; 2 x M2000F "Kerberos" high-energy long-range beam cannon, mounted on IWSP; 2 x MMI-M16XE2 "Deluge" hyper-velocity rail cannon, mounted on IWSP; 2 x GMF39 quadruple missile launcher (AGM141 "Firefly" guided missiles), mounted on IWSP; 2 x MA-M80 "Defiant" beam javelin, stored in IWSP, hand-carried in use

Technical and Historical Notes

The "Red IWSP" variation of the MBF-02 Strike Rouge is an improvation designed by Amuro Ray for use by pilot Shin Asuka as the Izumo Faction prepares for battle with the Granshirio Faction. When Shin refuses to use the "ZGMF-X42S," he is left with no choice but to use the Strike Rouge, as it is the only other available Cosmic Era suit on hand. To try and make the Strike Rouge's offensive competitive with Granshirio Faction units like the OZ-13MS Gundam Epyon, its Aile Striker Pack has been modified to integrate as many weapons as possible from the scrapped ZGMF-X56S Impulse's Sword and Blast Silhouettes. Accommodating both the Sword Silhouette's Excalibur swords and the Blast Silhouette's Kerberos cannons demanded that all of the Aile Striker's original armaments be removed from the IWSP (or "Impulse Weapons Striker Pack"). The "Red" coloration is Shin Asuka's attempt to modify Strike Rouge's colors. It essentially reverts the pink portions of the Strike Rouge to a more Impulse-like white and removes all House Attha and Orb insignias from the suit. Impulse's weapons consume power at a high rate, nullifying the effects of the unit's battery extender. The Strike Red IWSP has roughly the operating time of a standard battery-powered Cosmic Era suit.

-X-X-X-

A lot of the things written here about how ZAFT operates and what the Second Stage MS model numbers mean is pure conjecture, much like the conjecture with Zeon ace colors in the last chapter. It seems to make sense and is meant to fill in a place where Gundam SEED canon is otherwise silent on the issue.

This chapter was completed on Black Friday, 2010. I didn't listen to much music while I wrote it, but I did listen to a bit of the Super Robot Taisen OGs OST while I wrote. Not everything in that game sounds very Gundammy, but a lot of it would be right at home in the original SEED soundtracks.

-X-X-X-  
- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Zaku II Johnny Ridden Custom  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divier

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	39. Chapter 39

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Witz feels vindicated. Christina is adamant. Domon needs persuading.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Amuro's brows furrowed. "Witz? Are you sure?"

"Trust me on this one!" Witz Sou flipped around, making his way through the low-gravity atmosphere toward his goal. It was a great white-and-blue Mobile Suit with lines that were, to him, achingly familiar.

To Amuro, it was another unrecognizable MS stored haphazardly in the hangar wing set aside for the hundred-odd suits that no one at Anaheim could recognize. Nothing about it struck him as characteristic of an After War Mobile Suit, let alone reminiscent of Witz's hopelessly battered Airmaster.

Witz found the access panel easily enough, which was the most vital step to positively identifying an alien Mobile Suit. Amuro descended to join him. Witz was settling into the cockpit to examine the controls.

"There's no mistaking it! I dunno who put all this new junk on her or gave her the new paint job, but there's no way this isn't my Airmaster!" Witz beamed.

"I suppose it could be from your future... well, a possible future." Amuro found a usable port and linked his data pad to the MS by a cable that was not standard, but could often pass for it.

"Seems like a pretty sweet future! Looks like somebody added some new beam guns to her and a ton more armor..."

Amuro blinked in surprise. "Hm... the registry code is GW-9800-B. It's an Airmaster variant, at least."

"Well, we gotta give it a better name than that. What's somethin' cool that starts with B?"

"Cool? I don't know... beta, maybe?" Amuro said.

"I dunno, that makes it kinda sound like it sucks more than the original. That ain't true if I'm reading these specs right."

Amuro shrugged. "I just like using Greek letters."

"Maybe, like... 'Airmaster Blast'? 'Cause it has more guns now?"

"That sounds a little... I don't know, like whoever made it was all about shooting things up. That doesn't sound right for you."

Witz thought the hardest he thought about anything besides his next paycheck. "... burst. Airmaster Burst? That sounds okay. It could be, like... either the guns, or like when I'm juking to dodge stuff..."

"That's not bad." Amuro smiled despite himself. He typically disliked Mobile Suit names that amounted to a description of what they did, but Witz had proven a master of tenacious evasion in Airmaster. "Airmaster Burst" was as auspicious a name for the new machine as any.

Witz exited the cockpit, feeling very satisfied with himself. "Then Airmaster Burst it is! Think she'll be tough to load up?"

"No more trouble than anything else here." Amuro gestured to the flotsam and jetsam of alien Mobile Suits that crowded the dim hangar. "Hauling it through the junk will be the worst of it."

"Sweet. What's up next?"

Amuro retracted the cable back into his data pad. "Mm... nothing I can think of, to be honest. You could take a day off."

Witz scowled. "I had enough time off when I was at the hospital. Can't I sort MS or help one of the build crews or somethin'?"

"Well, I guess Anaheim would be grateful enough if there was anything else in here you could identify..." Amuro trailed off, thoughtfully. "But Witz? If you don't mind me asking... why do you do this?"

Witz didn't follow. "Do what?"

"Well... you're a pilot, you work harder than almost anyone I've ever known... you say you're a mercenary, but that just doesn't fit. You behave more like a man with a mission."

"Well... I thought I said this before, the Freeden crew's got a mission to protect Newtypes..."

"There can't be that many Newtypes left alive in your world. I mean, it can't be what you do all the time."

Witz nodded, if ruefully. "True that. Well... you know, to be honest, people who don't work hard don't last too long where I'm from. And my family's pretty poor, and most of 'em can't work, so it's always been up to me to get stuff done. I guess that's it? I dunno, I'm nothing special, I just try to do the right thing as much as I can."

The apocalyptic visions he'd once seen in DOME's memory briefly passed through Amuro's mind. He suddenly felt a bit stupid for asking Witz to justify his utter decency as a human being. It should have been self-evident. "... that fits. I'm sorry, Witz. You must find the rest of us unbearable sometimes..."

"Rest of you who?"

"Us from the Universal Century. Always squabbling about things that don't really matter, acting like our world is the worst one imaginable..."

"Well... eh, sometimes, I guess." Witz wasn't so polite that he'd pretend Amuro was wrong. "On the other hand... I dunno. It's kinda interesting to hear what you guys think is important. I figure back where I'm from, before the Seventh Space War, people probably acted a lot like you guys."

"... probably."

Witz shrugged. "Look on the bright side. At least you guys got some warning about how far things can go when you let yourselves fight over nothin' all the time."

It occurred to Amuro that Witz was probably their crew's unparalleled master of looking on the bright side.

-X-X-X-

"Christina, this is completely ridiculous. Please tell me you'll reconsider."

"No. Now do you want a bagel or not?"

Amuro had never in his life cared less about bagels.

Christina looked as if she was mortally offended by Amuro's unwillingness to cooperate with her plan to take everyone's lunch orders. The two were at a rare impasse.

"Christina, you've had the bridge for our last few fights, and-"

"And I'm sick of it. Let someone else do it. I'm done."

"This doesn't make any sense! You're a test pilot, you know you have no business taking the field."

Christina's eyes narrowed. "Captain. Do you know what it feels like to realize that someone died for you?"

Amuro paused. "Yes."

"Then you know it's the worst feeling in the world."

"- I know. I know, but-"

"But nothing. I owe it to Ed to make sure Treize's faction is stopped. That won't happen from the Izumo's bridge."

Amuro's heart ached. He wanted to tell her she was being foolish and sentimental, but he also knew that he'd be a complete hypocrite if he did. He didn't have the right to ask her to ignore her pride when he would never do the same. "Could I at least talk you into piloting something better? Something with more armor-"

Christina shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense. I've spent months learning the Alex inside and out. I don't have time to learn how to pilot something completely new."

"You just- you don't know how bad this sounds."

"I can imagine. I won't be able to face myself if I don't get out there and do my share of the fighting, though. And you can't pretend like me piloting the Alex is any worse than letting Johnny go out there in a Gelgoog."

"Johnny's an ace-"

"He had to start somewhere. I'm choosing to start here," Christina said. "This is my line in the sand, Amuro. Treize's people have gone too far and I won't forgive them."

Amuro was well aware, from bitter experience, that a line in the sand could easily become a cross of sand, a miserable sacrifice that achieved little. He didn't want to see a perfectly good person like Christina come to such a futile end, but his terrible intuition whispered that her fate was now far beyond his control.

He sagged in the face of what appeared to be destiny. What would a warning of doom mean to an Oldtype, who saw the future as a blank slate? (For that matter, how had an Oldtype ended up testing early NT Mobile Suit designs?) Christina's will would be done and all Amuro could do was wait to see the outcome.

He turned away from her. "... I understand. Let me know if I can help you with anything."

"Do you want anything for lunch?"

"I'm not especially hungry..."

Christina frowned at him. "I'm going to get you some coffee and a bagel. You never seem to eat very much."

Amuro smiled, not trusting himself to speak and unsure whether to laugh or cry. He remembered when Frau had told him basically the same sorts of things.

She'd moved far beyond his reach, too, but at least she'd gone somewhere safe (relatively speaking). Amuro wasn't at all sure where Christina was going, but it was doubtless fraught with danger.

-X-X-X-

Amuro had saved his most painstaking task for last. The day before Garma's funeral, he returned to the Izumo's hangar where Shining Gundam awaited repairs. The damage to the machine didn't seem to be significant, at least compared to hopelessly wrecked units like Witz's original Airmaster. Amuro's guess was that some of the electrical systems in Shining had overloaded, which usually called for replacing popped fuses in critical junctions.

Domon Kasshu proved to be very difficult about the repairs. He refused to allow the unit to be moved to Anaheim, no matter how Amuro tried to explain that it'd be more convenient. He refused to let Anaheim's engineers touch his machine, although more manpower would equate to faster work. For awhile, it seemed like Domon thought he could somehow keep Shining going without repair work at all.

That went a bit beyond Amuro's tolerance of pilot foolishness. This lead to an uncomfortable hour where Amuro found himself trying to explain the delicacy of MS electrical systems to someone who clearly thought that how his machine worked wasn't any of his business.

Eventually, Domon was defeated by Amuro's sheer dogged insistence "Your engineer's jargon means nothing to me. If Shining Gundam needs repair so badly, I'll permit you to look at it. You must work on it in the Izumo's hangar, alone, and I will watch you."

Amuro found Domon's conditions totally baffling. "Domon, this is really something I can delegate once I figure what needs to be replaced."

"No!" Domon raised his voice. "If you will not fix Shining Gundam yourself, then I will use it as it is!"

That was totally unacceptable given the very real possibility that Shining would be asked to fight that dreadful red Mobile Suit again. So Amuro sighed, delegated as much of his other repair work as he could, and returned to the hangar with as many different types of fuses as he could find in Anaheim's spare parts stock. He was prepared for a long, tedious night of work.

Domon wasn't waiting for Amuro alone in the Izumo's hangar. Shin was there, though it took Amuro a few minutes to recognize him. For the first time he could remember, Shin wasn't wearing any part of his ZAFT uniform.

The knee-high boots had been replaced which what appeared to be more general-purpose magnetic shipboard work boots, the red trousers with dungaree bottoms that fit a bit too loosely. The red greatcoat that had seemed to double Shin's size was gone. Amuro couldn't recognize that the blue shirt Shin was wearing as the one scrap of his old uniform that was still in use.

Shin had dug up some heavy-duty fingerless leather work gloves. His hair had gotten longer with no military barber around to insist on cutting it once it was beyond regulation length, so Shin had simply found a white headband somewhere that he could use to keep it out of his eye.

Amuro couldn't quite keep from flinching at his first glimpse of Shin's unbandaged face. Shin's right eye socket was caked over with scar tissue. Amuro had never seen anything like it, not even during the One Year War. He couldn't begin to imagine what the others would think.

Shin was, fortunately, not really paying any attention to Amuro. He was punching what appeared to be a small 2 meter by 2 meter sheet of industrial-use lunar titanium that was leaning against a wall. The sheet was not thick enough to be used to plate a Mobile Suit. It had clearly been cast with some sort of cheaper purpose in mind.

The metal made a dull gonging sound as Shin's knuckles pounded it. Domon watched intently, as if judging an act of complex and subtle beauty. To Amuro, it was just a sweaty teenager hitting things.

"Ah, Domon? I don't mean to interrupt, but I'm ready to get started."

Domon nodded, as if this request was somehow grave and terrible. "Ask me nothing more than you need to finish your work."

Amuro tried not to be feel annoyed. "Okay?"

"Asuka, keep going!" Domon shouted.

Shin stopped for a moment, breathing hard. "For how long?"

"Until you can dent the sheet or move no more!" Domon said.

Shin was dismayed. "Seriously?"

"Until you're strong enough to dent that metal, you are not worthy of Touhoufuhai!"

Shin went back to punching the sheet, his staccato blows soon fading into mere background noise.

"So... what exactly is Shin doing, again?" Amuro asked.

Amuro did not find Domon's answer entirely comprehensible. "Coordinators may be stronger than average people, but they're far from Gundam Fighters. Even the most basic techniques of my school are beyond Asuka now."

"You're teaching him to be a Gundam Fighter?" Amuro found the idea entirely alarming.

"No. That's beyond my wisdom," Domon said. His voice was softer and Amuro thought it might even be a little sentimental. "My understanding of Touhoufuhai is still incomplete. I can only help Asuka improve himself."

"Well, it's probably good to keep Shin occupied with something..."

Amuro headed toward Domon's Mobile Fighter, which was stretched out on its back as he'd asked. He popped open an access hatch on the right arm that would be all but invisible to an ordinary onlooker. It was blasted with soot, a sure sign that a fuse had been so swamped with current that it had probably just exploded. Amuro began wiping soot and chunks of debris away from the fuse's housing with a large brush.

Domon grew visibly nervous as he watched Amuro get to work. "Can I trust you to keep what you see here a secret?"

"Yes, but from who?"

"It is a serious violation of the Gundam Fight Treaty to show your Mobile Fighter's internal design to anyone but your designated mechanic."

Amuro paused, turning to look at Domon in disbelief. "Really?"

"Each country's Gundam Fighter is a completely unique design, incorporating that nation's most advanced technologies. Its secrets could be used against it by any enemy," Domon said. "... also..."

"Also?"

"I fear that you will learn how to create a Mobile Fighter."

Amuro laughed. "I think you're overestimating me, Domon. I'll feel lucky if I can just get it field-ready." He pulled his data pad out so he could connect it to Shining's access port and begin running a diagnostic on its electrical systems.

Domon watched Amuro's eyes move rapidly as his data pad began to construct schematics of the parts of Shining's electrical systems that worked. Gaps or sudden terminations clearly indicated where a fuse had blown and a circuit could no longer be completed.

"Well?" Domon asked.

"This is interesting..." Amuro said. "Really interesting. Its like your suit is powering a gigantic biosensor array..."

"Biosensor?"

"Oh, it's a technology from my world... it could read a Newtype pilot's aura and put the energy to use. Anaheim said it was too expensive and abandoned it, but now I wonder if they just never understood it..."

The idea that Amuro's world had almost gone down the path of developing its own Gundam Fighters was sobering to Domon. "It's just as well. A world where Gundam Fighters were manufactured the way your world manufactures Mobile Suits..."

"We'd have all killed each other by now. If we even had weapons like the Cosmic Era suits do, we'd have already ruined the world." Amuro shook his head, sadly. "If I take anything home with from all this, it's going to be a very clear notion of just how depressing the Universal Century really is."

Domon leaned against his Mobile Fighter. His voice had become wistful. "You sound just like my brother did, sometimes."

"You have a brother? That's nice," Amuro said. He wasn't quite sensitive enough to understand that the mention was harldy a pleasantry. "I don't have much family left, though I'm getting to the age where I wish I did."

"What happened to them?"

"Oh, well... no brothers, no sisters... Dad died during the War... and my mother doesn't speak to me. I've never managed to settle down, so no kids... "

"Why wouldn't your own mother speak to you?"

"She's a pacifist. She does a lot of work with relief agencies. I send her some money every now and then."

Domon's brows furrowed. "So just because you became a soldier..."

Amuro squatted down to rifle through the assortment of MS fuses he'd brought, selecting a few that seemed like they might fit the opening. "Well, she saw me kill a man once. I can't really blame her for not wanting to look at me."

Domon froze, shocked. "You've killed people?"

"Domon, I've been doing this for so long... I've killed so many people I've lost count. I don't even remember when I lost count." Amuro paused for a moment, looking down. "I hate that. I never had a choice, but I still hate it."

He returned to work, trying to fit the first fuse. It was a bit too small and rattled dangerously in its aperture. Domon remained silent, unsure of how to reconcile himself to the idea that Amuro was a killer. Rationally, he'd known all along, but it was hard to accept emotionally. Domon saw a bit of his father in Amuro, the tinkering scientist who was too brilliant to understand that he was brilliant.

Of course, it wasn't that long ago that Domon would've felt the same way about his brother. He felt a familiar anger well up inside of him, making his chest feel tight and painful.

"So what's your world like, Domon?"

Amuro's question was a welcome distraction, though Domon really had no idea how to answer it. "It's home."

"Tell me about it." Amuro began to screw in another fuse, one designed to work with Psychoframe-equipped MS. It was a much better fit and, if it performed to spec, should easily tolerate Shining's power output. "Tell me about the Gundam Fight, too."

"What do you want to know?"

Amuro shrugged. "Nothing in particular. I'm curious, mostly. So start at the beginning and keep talking until your Gundam works."

That seemed reasonable to Domon. So he leaned against Shining and told Amuro about everything from the Gundam Fight treaty to the Colony Fight tournament, with plenty of digressions to explain how national sympathies that were ancient to Amuro's way of thinking had somehow survived into Domon's present day.

The only other sound in the hangar was the sound of Shin's fists on metal, though after awhile he began to punch a bit more softly. He wanted to hear, too.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

I did as much research as I could into the science here, but luck dictates that someone reading this is a real-life electrical engineer who can't believe the stupid crap he just read. If you're that guy, drop me a message and let me know what needs fixing.  
I wish I had a cool Gundammy soundtrack to recommend to you guys, but lately I've mostly just been listening to music from Digimon Xros Wars. I guess The Guardian is kind of Gundammy...

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran CehackGarma Zabi White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Heero Yuy / Epyon

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / RaiderFlay Allster


	40. Chapter 40

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Beyonder sends reinforcements and everyone feels dissatisfied.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Izumo's work was done, or at least all of the work that called for the pilots' personal attention. It was time for Garma Zabi's funeral.

The site selected for the funeral was a park in one of the pressurized domes on Von Braun's surface level, where the temperature was always perfect. Ordinarily, its main attractions were a pristine view of the Earth and a commemorative statue of the ancient explorer, Neil Armstrong, who was believed to be the first human ever to set foot on the city's site.

The first hour was devoted discreetly to their fallen friends who weren't Garma. Shin sat alone in front of the little urn that held Flay's ashes, since only he remained of those who had truly known her. Ed and Loran had left no pictures nor possessions, so their places could be marked only with placards and flowers. Amuro had been able to supply one of Lowe's wrenches, which seemed to him an inadequate memorial at best.

The small population at Von Braun that had no direct role in the Gundam War was swelled the dome as the time of Garma's funeral approached. They were eager to see an event that- depending on a person's point of origin- was either a horrible vision of the future, a terrible echo of the past, or simply incomprehensible.

Gato and Johnny were at the forefront of the crowd, in full uniform. They would be far from alone, other Zeon men crowding around them to create a cluster of green, red, and gold lamé clustered in the black sea of mourners. Gato's heart swelled with pride, but Johnny took no comfort in knowing exactly how many people he'd failed.

The irregulars all had radically different reactions to the situation. Shin decided to wear his full ZAFT uniform one last time, since something about it had always seemed to appeal to Zeon sensibilities. He spotted other green and black coats in the crowd, but no red or white.

Witz had no idea that people were generally expected to dress differently at funerals and felt a little embarrassed when he showed up. Few of the other attendants were wearing plain civilian dress and none sat so close to the front as he and the Izumo's other pilots did.

Domon had somehow obtained a classically cut black suit and seemed only a little loose on his slim frame, complete with tie. He claimed it was traditional funeral dress in his country. It was somewhat difficult to believe Domon could be from any place so ordinary.

Amuro and Christina had independently arrived at the conclusion that wearing a Federation uniform to what was likely to be treated as a Zeon state funeral was tasteless. They'd both snapped up last-minute funeral wear from local shops at ridiculously inflated prices, Amuro a suit whose jacket was too long in the sleeves and Christina a demure black dress that was too loose at the shoulders and too tight at the hips. Both had to struggle not to look an inappropriately miserable.

-X-X-X-

Rondo stepped onto the platform, striding behind a podium and microphone prepared for her funeral address. She'd claimed the right to preside over Garma's funeral as highest-ranking dignitary in the city. Johnny felt that it might be more tasteful for Garma's funeral speech to be made by someone who was effectively neutral when it came to the Universal Century's conflict between Earthnoid and Spacenoid. Rondo's love of black clothing meant she could attend in her ordinary dress and still appear as if she wore the funeral regalia of an unimaginable country.

"My friends," she began. "I am aware that many of you do not recognize me. I am Rondo Mina Sahaku, emir of the sovereign nation of Orb. I call you my friends, for though we meet on this day, because I feel we must be united in mutual admiration for the man we honor here today."

"You've got to be kidding me," Christina whispered.

Amuro shrugged, keeping his reply sotto. "Zeon's always been about laying it on thick..."

"I stand before you this day to bury a man who has earned the right to be called a hero," Rondo continued. "I fear I know little of the Garma Zabi who served the Principality of Zeon in the Universal Century and I cannot say he is a hero because of his service to that great country. I am a woman of a different world, so I may judge Garma Zabi only by his actions here, in this place and time.

The Garma Zabi I knew was a man who understand how to bear the burden of leadership with an uncommon grace and dignity. Like myself, like all of you, he was brought here against his will, far from the people he loved, by a heartless being we have come to call the Beyonder. This Beyonder cared nothing for Garma's love of his people. The Beyonder wishes only to use us all as pawns in a cruel and bloody war game."

Rondo's accusation drew a murmur of noise from the crowd. While many of them had seen signs of this power's existence, Rondo was the first to give it a name and the first to claim that it used them, against their will, for such a petty purpose.

Witz swore under his breath. "What the hell is she trying to do? Start a riot?"

"She's speaking the truth about the Beyonder, at least," Domon said.

Rondo's voice rose. "Garma Zabi died trying to keep the Beyonder's war game from consuming the innocent lives that inhabit this very city, this entire Earthsphere. He died to prevent those who would pay the Beyonder tribute in blood from obtaining a vile and loathsome power. He died forging a peace between the Federation and Zeon that, I am told, has never existed before in the vastness of space and time.

After this great ceremony, I and my allies will go to war with Garma Zabi's murderers. If we are victorious, we will give Garma the greatest tribute possible. We will send all of you home to your families in his name. I did not know Garma long, but I cannot believe there is anything else he would desire."

The crowd was coming around, confusion becoming an ardent desire to believe everything Rondo said. Shin felt torn. Part of him was utterly swayed by her call to heroism, swelling with pride at the thought of helping so many people by winning a single battle. Another part of him realized that for all of Rondo's attitude toward ZAFT, her rhetoric was much the same.

"Garma's murderers possess powerful Mobile Suits from worlds of unimaginable horror, but we have stood against them before and we will do so again." Rondo knew the crowd was with her now. "Garma's murderers follow a man named Treize Khushrenada, a coward who has chosen to appease the Beyonder with senseless bloodshed. Garma Zabi is not the only man killed by him and those like him.

But we will prevail! Our fight is sacred, our cause divine. "We must never forget what the Beyonder has done to us! Garma Zabi sacrificed his life to prove the strength of selfless virtue in the face of selfish greed. Let the Izumo be the vessel for your anger and sorrow, my friends, so that the force of your desire will give us the power to grasp victory."

The once-indifferent crowd now roared in approval. Rondo had slowly pulled the crowd from indifference to jubilant emotion. Unbidden, a chorus of "Sieg Zeons!" broke out. Gato joined in, as he felt Rondo had somehow channeled the spirit of Zeon with absolute perfection. Johnny's reaction was more restrained. It seemed to him that Garma's funeral speech had not been very much about Garma, but about ensuring that the Izumo's crew would always be as royalty in Von Braun.

-X-X-X-

Once the ceremonies were over and the viewing ended, people began drifting away from the funeral. There would be a small and private ceremony later where Garma was cremated and his ashes cast into space, as colonies lacked room to spare for burials. Rondo would surely be present for that, as well as Gato and Johnny. For most the others, the affair was effectively done. Shin would pause to scatter Flay's ashes as close to Earth as he could get them, before returning to the ship.

Witz was one of the first to escape and glad to do so. Funerals were much shorter and less formal affairs in his world, usually followed by hours and hours of raucous drinking and storytelling. Witz ordinarily regarded alcohol as a waste of money, but right now he felt he could really use a drink.

His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his elbow. He turned, expected to see one of the Izumo's other irregulars or Federation pilots hoping to sneak out early along with him. Witz was quite surprised to instead see a man he'd never met before. Witz thought he seemed a bit older than himself, though probably not so old as Amuro, and also a little taller. He was dressed in something that gave Witz the impression of a Federation uniform, though somehow dingier than the ones he was used to seeing.

"Hey... uh, hey, I'm sorry to bother you, but... this is Garma Zabi's funeral? Right?"

Witz immediately wondered if he was speaking to a lunatic. "Yeah?"

The man didn't let go of Witz's shoulder. "But that happened already, didn't it?" There was a note of panic in the man's voice.

"Oh... yeah, back where you're from, right?" Witz said. "This guy's a different Garma, sorta. You new here or somethin'?"  
The man looked relieved. "Yes! I was on Earth just hours ago! I was in the jungle, then I was on this weird ship and nobody was around..."

Recognition lit up in Witz's eyes. "Wait, you're- crap! You're you!"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, you're coming with me!" Witz grabbed the other man by the shoulder and begin hauling him back into the funeral crowd.

"What? Wait, what does that mean?"

"We've been waitin' for the Beyonder to send you for like a week!"

The man's eyes went wide in panic. "Wait, so- that Beyonder stuff is for real? Like that lady said?"

"Well... ehh, close enough."

"No! No, I can't do this! I'm in a different war already, I'm not fighting another one!" The man broke away from Witz. The shouting was starting to draw a crowd.

"Dude! Jeez, not here! We're all in the same boat, we've all got stuff we'd rather be doin'!" The crowd drawing around didn't seem friendly, given the afterglow of a rabble-rousing speech, Witz's slovenly dress, and the newcomer's tasteless Federation colors.

"Make way! Mister Witz, what's the trouble here?"

Witz was visibly relieved when Gato broke through the ring to take control of the situation. Gato was an imposing figure even at the worst of times. Today, he was practically an engine of Zeonic righteousness.

"We got our reinforcements and he's kinda freaking out 'cause he doesn't know what's going on," Witz said. He jabbed a thumb in the man's direction.

Gato glanced over the newcomer with disapproval that would have caused lesser men to burst into flames. "Hmph. So I see. Ladies, gentlemen, this is Izumo business. Kindly move along and let us see to it."

Gato's words carried weight. The crowd began to thin down to manageable levels of rubbernecking.

"I am Lieutenant Anavel Gato, until of late of the Delaz Fleet, more recently of the Izumo Team. Your name, soldier?"

"A-Amada. Second Lieutenant Shiro Amada." He paused. "Sir."

"You'll find we are not very formal on the Izumo, Lieutenant Amada. Wait here, we have some Federation personnel you'll probably be more comfortable speaking with at length."

Shiro watched Gato leave, speechless.

"Hey, you okay?" Witz asked.

"No," Shiro said. "I can't remember the last time I was less okay."

-X-X-X-

Amuro had immediately left for the hangars to have a look at whatever machine the Beyonder had sent along with Shiro. The man himself didn't know, since he'd apparently been dropped in the Izumo's deserted dock area.

For now, Shiro seemed grateful to have a decent cup of coffee in a staff break room that was perhaps a bit too technologically advanced, but otherwise solidly recognizable. The other unoccupied pilots had gathered there as quickly as they could.

"So you really haven't heard of me or the 08th MS Team?" Shiro asked.

"I'm afraid not. I was a test pilot back home, though, so I tended to be out of the loop when it came to the front." Christina took a seat opposite Shiro, her own cup in hand.

Shin audibly groaned. "I can't believe Treize gets that red thing and we get you."

"Aw, c'mon, kid, it's not like he signed up to get stuck with us," Witz said.

"Hey! I'm a squad commander, it's not like you got sent some green recruit..." Shiro couldn't quite shake the feeling that everyone was disappointed with him for some reason.

"There's no honor or wisdom is underestimating a fighter. Any fighter," Domon said.

Shin looked a little sheepish at his master's rebuke. "Look, new guy-"

"Lieutenant Amada," Christina interjected, nose wrinkled in annoyance.

"Shiro's fine."

"- look, Shiro," Shin continued. "We're just... fighting something really powerful right now. We were hoping for more firepower, is all."

"Speak for yourself," Christina scoffed.

"Aw, c'mon, you gotta admit you were hoping for another Gundam Fighter or somethin'," Witz said.

"Okay, look, I'm not the best pilot in the world and I don't have the best MS in the world, but how about letting me do something before you act like I'm a burden? It's not like wishing for better equipment ever won a battle," Shiro said.

Christina was eager to change the subject. "You seem to understand the Beyonder and the war game well enough. We'll explain the Treize faction later when the others are here, so... do you have any questions left before that?"

Shiro thought for a moment. "Well... that guy down in the hangar. He really used to be the Gundam kid?"

"... the Gundam kid?"

"I always heard that the Gundam's pilot was a kid," Shiro said. "Y'know, like Shin over there."

"Hey! Come on, Witz is only like a year older than I am."

Witz grinned. "Yeah, but I don't act like a kid."

"A kid..." Christian seemed a little upset at the thought. If Amuro wasn't well into his thirties, the math would actually work out that way. "That seems a little unlikely. I was testing a replacement for the prototype Gundam, I can't imagine the Federation brass wanting to give something like that to a kid."

"For a kid who shot down a hundred Zakus? C'mon, they'd build custom suits for a dog that could pull that off," Shiro laughed.

Christian scowled, because she knew Shiro was undoubtedly correct. "I suppose you could ask him about it, but he doesn't talk about himself much. Is there anything else?"

"So... did I show up here after a bunch of people died? Is that why I'm reinforcements?" Shiro asked.

"I'm afraid so," Christina said.

"As one falls, another is added," Domon said. "You've been expected for many days now."

"No wonder you guys were hoping for an ace. Well... I'm sorry, I'm just me. I'll try to do my best. We can go home after we win, right?"

"It sounds like it, but y'know, we don't exactly know that part yet," Witz said.

Shiro gazed down into his coffee, pensive for a moment. "Good. There's someone I need to see..."

"Ah, I see the briefing is in progress." The door slid open to reveal Rondo, flanked by Gato and Johnny. She didn't seem very interested in Shiro, though she avoided outright disappointment.

Johnny, however, stepped forward and extended his hand to Shiro in greeting. "You must be Lieutenant... Amada, was it?"

Shiro liked Zeon, in principle, more than most Feddie pilots he knew. Figuring out how to respond to Zeon who weren't showing even the slightest bit of mistrust was a bit much even for him. He took Johnny's hand awkwardly. "Uh... y-yeah. You're..."

"Commander Johnny Ridden. It's unlikely you've heard of me, but I've heard we're both One Year War men. Were you posted to Earth or space, if I may ask?"

"Oh... Earth. I'm a squad leader..."

"Very good. I spent the war in Space, so it's unlikely we were crossed paths."

Shiro smiled. Johnny was like the culmination of all his beliefs about most Zeon being basically decent people. "Hey, so we're not consorting with the enemy at all, right?"

Johnny and Gato both laughed. Christina and the irregulars present in the room stared openly. It was the first time anyone had ever heard Gato laugh at anything at all. The sound was disarmingly normal.

"Squad leader, eh? We can probably use you." Rondo seemed a bit more pleased with Shiro now. "I think you're the only other pilot here with formal field command experience, Commander Ridden?" Rondo said.

"Lieutenant Gato has a bit of experience, I believe," Johnny said.

"Limited experience at best," Gato said. He still blamed Ed's death on his own poor command ability, but was discreet enough not to bring it up.

Shiro noticed the shadow that passed over Gato's face and wondered at its meaning. He was about to speak when he was interrupted by an incoming call. A small screen set into the lounge's wall flashed to life.

"Amuro here, sorry if I'm interrupting. I've got some, uh... I've got some bad news." He glanced back over one shoulder at the Mobile Suit behind him.

It had the heaviness of a One Year War machine, but it lacked any sense of grace or romanticism in its styling. While it clearly had a Gundam's head, it lacked any sort of flashy color scheme. Instead it was nearly completely white with only a simple blue torso block. There was a certain half-finished look to it.

"Hey, that's my Ez8!"

"Yeah, um... was Lieutenant Amada stationed to Earth? Because this thing's not sealed."

"What?" Rondo asked. She clearly didn't understand what Amuro meant at all.

"I mean... it's not sealed! There's nothing to keep the cockpit or the suit's interior pressurized. If we end up fighting Treize in space there's no way we can field Shiro in this thing." Amuro was so emphatic that it appeared to border on panic.

"Wait, what about my Mobile Armor?" Shiro asked.

This time Amuro was confused. "- what?"

"Behind you. Next to Ez8's foot. That's spaceworthy, right?"

Amuro turned around. What he was looking at wasn't entirely visible on the screen, but his reaction was memorably histrionic.

"- that's a Ball!"

Shiro smiled. "Yeah. The Ball's spaceworthy!"

"No you can't!" Amuro was livid. "That thing's a death trap! There is absolutely no way you're fielding against Treize's forces in a Ball!"

"Hey! The Ball's no Zaku, but it's better than nothing. You've gotta remember, Gundam Kid, some of us have to make do with whatever we can get."

"- Gundam Kid-" Amuro was briefly speechless. "I- Rondo! Somebody! Tell him he's not fighting anything in a Ball!"

"Step aside and let me see this thing for myself, Amuro," Rondo said.

Amuro was happy to oblige. There was an orange spherical craft sitting in the Izumo hangar next to the Ez8's foot. It was about the height of the Gundam's leg, showing signs of only a rudimentary camera system. A pair of machine cannons were mounted on the craft's top and a pair of manipulator arms were attached to its bottom, much too small for any sort of hand-carried equipment. Between the arms, some sort of wench mechanism attached to a small harpoon was mounted.

Shin and Witz openly gawked at the thing in horror. They'd begun staring at the allegation that the Ez8 wasn't spaceworthy, which was by itself simply inconceivable to them.

"That's not a Mobile Armor, that's a cockpit with guns welded to it!" Shin said.

"You mean a coffin with guns welded to it," Witz said.

"Are those even beam guns?"

"No way! Look at it, the bore's way too small..."

Gato's faced clouded with anger. "The Beyonder is mocking us! He gives Treize's faction that red monster and gives us a pile of spare parts and a single Ball?"

"Hey, Ez8's made out of mostly real Gundam parts!" Shiro said.

"... far be it from me to cast aspersions on the quality of One Year War technology, but even in our day the Ball was not considered a high-quality unit. We're fighting some terrifying enemies here, Lieutenant Amada," Johnny said.

Shiro was stubbing up. The tendency to simply write his machines off as too weak to matter flew in the face of all his instincts. "Look, you guys haven't seen me pilot a Ball. It's not the greatest Mobile Armor..."

"Lieutenant Amada, with all due respect, the Ball is the worst mobile weapon in all of recorded history," Gato said.

"That doesn't matter! It's not the suit, it's the pilot!" Shiro said.

"Ordinarily I'd agree with you, Lieutenant Amada," Rondo said. "But I don't believe I'd forgive myself if I let one of my men pilot something so... primitive."

"Could you perhaps pilot something else?" Johnny asked.

"Or is there time to seal this 'Ez8' of his?"

"Rondo, I'm sorry, but there's no way. There's no time to get more units, there's no time to do more work, we're barely going to get everything we've already ordered delivered on time."

"Excuse me," Christina interrupted. "But wouldn't this solve the problem of who has the bridge during the next battle? Lieutenant Amada can handle it while I sortie in the Alex."

"- by myself?" Shiro exclaimed.

"It's a long story, Lieutenant, but it is feasible," Johnny said.

"I suppose we'll have to make due with that." Rondo scowled. "We'll see about upgrading Lieutenant Amada's machines later, then... if there is a later."

"All things considered, I hope there won't be," Shiro said.

Rondo smiled at Shiro, a thin and cold expression. "I hope you're right, Lieutenant."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Shiro Amada is, of course, from the Gundam OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. His inclusion was planned from the start, though I doubt anyone who requested him in earlier arcs was expecting to see him now. (Yes, this is incredibly unfair behavior on the Beyonder's part.)

It is canonical that the Ez8 isn't spaceworthy, though this never comes up in 08th MS Team itself. The idea is mainly introduced in the G Gen series of strategy games, where a MSV unit called the Ez8 Kai is introduced. Among the Ez8 Kai's improvements are the ability to deploy in space.

If I haven't recommended Andrew W.K.'s Gundam Rock album yet, I'll do that now. There's a pretty inspired reading of Ghiren's famous funeral speech on it that is entirely relevant to the events of this chapter.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball  
- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	41. Chapter 41

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Negotiations begin and immediately go awry.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The three days agreed upon by Treize and Rondo were over. The time had come for the two sides to meet and set terms for what would surely be their next battle.

Rondo gathered the pilots in the bridge at the day's beginning. "The negotiations with Treize will be delicate. I'd prefer to do as much of the talking myself as possible. I'd also prefer that as many of you as possible stay off the bridge. I can run a feed of the discussion down to another room if you don't want to wait on a briefing."

"You want us off-camera? Why?" Shiro asked. He'd gotten used to asking near-constant questions since his arrival the previous day.

"In the case of Lieutenant Gato, Mister Asuka, and Mister Witz, it might convince Treize's forces that they're dead. It's to our advantage to convince him that we're as weak as possible. In the case of Captain Ray, I hope to exploit Haman's knowledge of what really happened at DOME. In the case of Lieutenant Amada, they simply won't know that he exists if they don't see him."

"Then with all due respect, Lady Rondo, there's no good reason for me to absent myself from negotiations. I'd prefer to be involved," Johnny said.

"I feel the same," Christina added. "I want to see these people's faces."

"While I understand the tactical reasons for requesting my absence, Lady Rondo, I cannot give up this opportunity to speak with Commander Karn," Gato said. "Commander Ridden has accused her of the gravest treason and I need to know how she accounts for Lord Garma's death."

Rondo frowned. "I'm not going to refuse you."

Witz put his hands behind his head, stretching. "Yeah, well, I'll be happy to sit this one out. These things make my head hurt."

"Nothing good would come of me talking to Haman at this point," Amuro added.

"Here, we'll watch it together and you guys can tell me what the hell's going on. I dunno a thing about this Treize guy yet," Shiro said.

Amuro shrugged. "That's because we don't, either."

"If there's nothing for me to do, I'm gonna go train," Shin said.

Domon nodded. "I should do the same."

"No, wait- Mister Kasshu. On second thought, I think you should head to the bridge with us." Rondo was pensive, brows furrowed.

Domon glanced at her, silently asking for an explanation.

"Treize didn't want me to destroy Epyon after you'd damaged it. He wanted that badly enough to let us retreat when he could have picked us off," Rondo said. "I think Treize is going to be interested in you, Domon Kasshu, and I'd prefer not to use your life as a bargaining chip while you're elsewhere."

Domon stood still for a moment, as if slowly digesting Rondo's argument. Then he nodded. "Very well. I will accompany you. Shin, you know what to do."

"Punch sheet metal, got it," Shin sighed. He rubbed his knuckles and wondered if all this was going to be worth it.

-X-X-X-

The Granshirio's younger pilots gathered before Treize in one of the ship's hangers. They had all spent the past three days fine-tuning their machines, sharing data with Treize, and doing a lot of hanging around with each other. Heero was, as ever, the main exception to this rule. He disappeared for long periods of time and now rarely bothered to address anyone besides Stellar.

"Everyone, I'm about to open negotiations with the Izumo," Treize said. "It is possible that they will surrender and end this peacefully, but also highly unlikely. Please remain here and I will brief you once the negotiations are complete."

"Wait, we can't sit in on it?" Garrod asked.

Treize's gaze became rueful. "I think nothing useful would come of it. Diplomacy is little more than the art of lying gracefully. You'd learn nothing of use about the Izumo this way."

"Why on Earth would you care about diplomatic negotiations, anyway?" Al asked.

Garrod shrugged and tried to act indifferent. "I wanna know about who we're gonna fight, is all."

"They'll be concealing as much of their strength as possible. Of course, it is in our interests to do the same," Treize said. "I expect to see only Rondo Mina Sahaku and perhaps one or two others."

"It's really hard to fight people after you've seen their faces," Kira added. "Even if they're people who need to be fought, it's just... better not to know."

"He's right, you know. Celestial Being tries to keep us emotionally distant from our targets for good reason. Getting emotional in a fight usually leads to disaster."

Garrod scowled. "Okay, geez. Whatever."

"You may occupy yourselves as you wish for the next hour, but try to return here promptly by the hour's end. If by chance the Izumo does reveal some useful information about itself, I will be eager to share it with you," Treize said.

"Sir." It was the first thing Heero had said in hours.

Garrod watched Treize depart. The man's sincerity still seemed as absolutely genuine as it had been the day Garrod had arrived on the Granshirio's bridge, confused and terrified. Despite that, Garrod still had the unshakeable feeling that something was amiss on the Granshirio.

At least one of the other adults who'd recently come aboard had to be lying about something. Garrod was not entirely sure what, but he liked to think he could spot a con artist's tells even in a crazy situation like this. The other adults never said anything that wasn't sure to please, never spoke idly, and seemed to use different body language when they believed themselves to be unobserved.

What Garrod couldn't work out is how far the con went and exactly who was involved. He was pretty sure either Michelo or Cima was up to something, but he had a hard time imagining a Newtype like Haman Karn lying through her teeth.

Treize didn't act like a liar but that didn't necessarily mean he believed the other adults were wholly truthful or benevolent. Garrod couldn't think of any other reason why Treize didn't want them to see or hear exactly what was said to the Izumo.

"Hey, Stellar, what do you know about the Izumo?" Garrod asked. Stellar's image of the Izumo had consistently disagreed with what the adults said, when she spoke of it at all.

Stellar looked a little startled to be addressed. She usually fell completely silent around the adults and was only comfortable once she was well distracted from the Granshirio's grim business. "The Izumo? Stellar doesn't know anything. Stellar lived on a different ship."

"So they've got two ships?"

Al dropped his voice to sotto. "She's probably just thinking about the ship she served on before the Beyonder brought her here, Garrod."

"What if she's not?" Garrod asked, voice just as soft.

"What are you up to, Garrod?" Heero's voice wasn't soft at all.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Garrod decided to act indignant. "I was asking my teammate a question, is all."

"You're an idiot who never asks questions. Why are you starting now?"

Garrod wasn't acting when he lost his cool. "You think you're too good to talk to anybody, why are you starting now?"

"Guys, come on. This isn't the time," Kira pleaded.

"Stellar doesn't want her friends to fight..."

"Agh, fine, fine." Garrod made a great show of walking away toward his Mobile Suit, his Normal Suit's helmet in hand. He tried to sound as huffy and petulant as he could. "Look, can I help it if I get bored out of my skull around here? I guess I'll go screw with my control calibrations for the ten billionth time!"

The others watched him go. Al shook his head in disbelief. "I'd really like to know who decided he was fit to be a Gundam Meister."

"Probably no one," Heero said.

Kira stared. Heero never volunteered information.

Heero eyed Kira for a moment before deciding to elaborate. "Garrod probably stole his Gundam. He's not trained and won't obey authority."

Al laughed. "That's a bit much, isn't it? Garrod is so... transparent. Who could be so careless with a Gundam that Garrod, of all people, would end up stealing it? Even this latest outburst, Heero, is probably just because he finds you threatening."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Good."

Garrod overhead only a little of this conversation, as he made a point of scrambling into the Divider X's cockpit as quickly as possible. He'd escaped Heero's notice enough to get started on something that would be enlightening, if extremely dangerous. .

Garrod immediately began tuning the Divider X's communications array, hoping to be able to passively pick up audio of the transmissions between the two ships without being detected.

-X-X-X-

"Transmission incoming from the Dogos Gear, ma'am," Christina announced from her comm station.

Rondo eased back into the Captain's chair, settling her face and spirit into the cold mask required for diplomacy. "Patch it through."

Moments later, she saw the faces of the three traitors and a fourth, unfamiliar man who must surely be Treize Khushrenada. They hadn't called from the bridge, instead using some sort of ornate room Rondo supposed to be Treize's ready room.

"Lady Rondo. It is a pleasure to speak with you again, even under such circumstances as this," said Treize.

"I wish I could say the same. What's the message you've been waiting three days to tell us, Colonel Khushrenada?"

"A moment, Lady Rondo. I see you do not address me alone. Would you care to introduce your associates?"

Rondo already felt exasperated. "Gentlemen, lady, if you please."

"Lieutenant Christina MacKenzie."

"Commander Johnny Ridden."

"Domon Kasshu."

Gato stood. Rondo immediately knew she was going to lose all control of the situation. "I am Lieutenant Anavel Gato of the Delaz Fleet. With all due respect, Colonel Treize, I request a moment to speak with Commander Haman Karn regarding a matter of utmost urgency."

Treize didn't look surprised or unsettled at all. "Of course. Commander Karn, if you would?"

She rose with queenly grace and approached the screen, arms crossed, portions of her ornate costume floating slightly in the zero gravity. "Lieutenant Gato?"

"Commander Karn, you must know of what I'm about to say. You stand accused of murdering our Lord Garma Zabi at the DOME lunar installation. How do you account for your actions there?"

"Our history understands where and when Garma Zabi died, Lieutenant Gato. How could I murder a man long dead?"

Gato went pale. "- Commander Karn, you can't- you can't be serious-"

"I am completely serious, Lieutenant Gato. I will forgive the insubordination you committed when you questioned my actions if you depart the Izumo immediately and return to my side here, upon the Granshirio. The same goes for you, Commander Ridden."

Johnny rose. "By what authority do you presume to give me orders, Haman Karn?"

"I am Zeon's highest commander and ultimate authority. I guided Zeon far longer than any member of the Zabi family, or Zeon Zum Deikun himself! If either of you are true men of Zeon, you will abandon that alien creature's ship-" Haman gestured at the screen, surely indicating Rondo. "- and immediately and take your proper place at my side. If you will not do this, then I brand you traitors and you will die by my hand."

Gato visibly crumpled beneath the force of Haman's accusations. "Commander Karn, I- everything I've done here has been for Zeon's glory! We wished to save Lord Garma's life and change the outcome of the One Year War-"

"Treason! You speak treason to me, Anavel Gato! You consort with Federation soldiers, sub-human genetic aberrations, bizarre aliens, the White Devil himself, and now this? Zeon's salvation is in our future, not in rewriting the past!" Haman 's voice was like iron. "You are an honorless traitor, Anavel Gato, and I will see to it that history remembers you that way when I return."

Cima made no attempt at all to disguise her glee. "Strange how your reputation can evaporate so quickly, isn't it, Lieutenant?"

Gato was utterly crushed. He sank back into his chair. A brightness in his eyes had gone out completely. Christina couldn't stifle an audible gasp; Domon tightened a fist and seemed on the verge of shouting, though he knew not what to say.

Johnny Ridden rose, undaunted. "You have no rightful authority over me, Haman Karn, and I will never permit a future where a debased creature like you is the face of Zeon. I see now that you are corruption that has rotted Zeon's philosophy from its core in the future, despite the tireless effort of good men like Anavel Gato."

Haman was struck speechless. She had never thought much of Johnny, but something in him now was reminiscent of Char- not the Char she had loved, but the uncontrollable man she'd come to detest utterly. "You- you'll die here!" Haman shouted. "I will destroy you, Johnny Ridden!"

It was as if Haman had something nothing at all to him. Johnny's blue ices were like ice. "You are welcome to try, Haman Karn, but worthier foes than you have already failed." Johnny sank into his chair, finished.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

I couldn't think of a music recommendation at all for this one. It was written mostly over the Christmas holidays, which meant a lot of holiday songs were playing in the background... not really what you want to listen to for something like this, is it?

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball  
- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	42. Chapter 42

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: A true compromise is a situation in which no party is satisfied.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"You bitch, you lying bitch!" Witz was raging at a video screen, so furious it seemed he would punch it. Shiro and Amuro were having to hold him back, a bit awkwardly. It was the first genuine display of temper from Witz that either man had ever seen.

"Hey, man, take it easy-" Shiro began.

"She shot me!"

"This is why I didn't want to talk to her..." Amuro's voice was tired.

"It's just a bunch of bullshit is all!" Witz sat back down on the uncomfortable couch in the deserted lounge they were using to watch the negotiations (which were rapidly degenerating into a shouting match, as usual).

"At least Johnny's laying into her..." Shiro said. He shook his head. "This Treize guy has to be a real piece of work, if he's putting up with a viper like that."

"Or he's just an opportunist," Amuro said.

"You think Gato's gonna be okay?" Witz asked.

Shiro blinked. "Do you think he'd take it that hard? He seems pretty reasonable..."

"He is now. When he got here a few months ago, he was a classic Zeon hardliner," Amuro said. "I can't begin to imagine what this will do to him. I've never really understood ideologues, Zeon or otherwise."

Shiro could think of nothing to say. He reached into a large pocket stitched into the thighs of his dungarees. There was a heavy silver pocket watch within, much too expensive-looking for an officer of Shiro's pay grade. A Zeon insignia was engraved on the back.

Amuro blinked. "What's that?"

"Somebody gave it to me. I wonder, sometimes, what it really meant to her, or whoever gave it to her..." Shiro trailed off. "I like to think I understand people, but I don't think I really get Zeon, either."

"What, you've got a Zeon girlfriend? Is that allowed?" Witz asked. "I mean, these guys, it took them, like, a month to stop hating each other even when people were shootin' at 'em constantly."

"We weren't that bad..." Amuro seemed a little embarrassed.

"It's not allowed, but since when has that ever stopped anybody?" Shiro smiled despite himself.

-X-X-X-

"... let's negotiate terms before anyone else in our entourages start vowing to kill each other, shall we?" Rondo eyed Treize, letting a bit of her impatience show through.

"Of course, Lady Rondo. Custom requires that I first ask for your complete and unconditional surrender, as well as full custody of the DOME lunar installation."

"Which you know full well I'll refuse. Then I in turn offer you a chance to surrender, which you refuse. So when and where are we fighting?"

"There are some conditions I should like for us to agree upon first. In particular, I have no great interest in ship-to-ship warfare. I am willing to honor a mutual agreement not to fire upon each other."

Rondo smirked. "You aren't interested, or you know that your Granshirio is no match for my Izumo? If you expect me to give up full use of my ship's abilities, Treize, I expect something big in return."

"Given the discrepancy in machine strength between our two forces, I believe that's fair."

Rondo was beginning to find Treize detestable. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to turn over any traitors, would you?"

"That would be impossible, I'm afraid."

"Lady Rondo, if I may." Rondo winced as she heard Johnny's voice. "I'd suggest asking for the battle to be staged in high Earth orbit. Treize can pick the exact coordinates."

Rondo arched an eyebrow. It seemed like a trifling concession to her, but on the other hand, Johnny Ridden clearly wasn't a fool. "I'm amenable to that. Colonel?" Rondo saw a look of dismay pass over Haman and Cima's faces. Either Johnny had asked for something substantial, or the traitors at least believed he had. Either one satisfied Rondo's sense of spite.

"Highly acceptable," Treize said. "Now for the next condition..."

Treize continued. "It concerns Mister Domon Kasshu and his Shining Gundam. I should like to see him have a rematch with my Epyon, but this time, without any outside interference. I am willing to forbid Epyon's pilot from attacking other targets until the duel is over, if Mister Kasshu is willing to indulge my interest in seeing such a duel."

The Izumo bridge went absolutely silent for long moments while Domon considered his response. It was the first time anyone had even heard the red machine's name.

"I accept," Domon said.

Michelo cackled. "You serious, King of Hearts? This is no Gundam Fight. You sure you're ready to fight for real?"

Domon's gaze remained fixed on Treize. "I am a Gundam Fighter. I will abide by the Gundam Fight Treaty, even if my opponent does not."

Rondo didn't like the sound of that. "Mister Kasshu? You can't mean to treat this like a sporting event..."

"I agreed to the fight. How I conduct it is my business alone!" Domon's tone left no room for disagreement.

"That's a marvelous display of gallantry, Mister Kasshu. I thank you for your indulgence." Treize said nothing about requiring Epyon to follow similar rules.

"... if we're finished, Colonel Treize, I'd like to propose that the battle commence twelve hours after both flagships are at the designated coordinates."

"Wait. What about your second ship, Lady Rondo?" Cima sounded like she thought she was being very clever. "You're not going to lead us out to Earth just so you can shoot us in the back with your Dogos Gear?"

"We lack the crew to make use of both ships, given certain recent losses of personnel." Rondo's smile dripped acid. "I can consider the no-fire agreement binding to the Dogos Gear as well, though."

"Good." Cima was a perfect mockery of graciousness. "It sounds terrible to say, but we simply can't trust you people to do the right thing of your own accord."

"Quite acceptable." Treize's ability to ignore his crew's misbehavior verged on the heroic. "I'll transmit a set of randomly-chosen high earth orbit coordinates to the Izumo shortly. I believe we're finished, then?"

"No. I'm sorry, but no." Christina interrupted this time, voice soft but very firm. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but there's something I want to say to Colonel Treize while I have the chance."

"Of course you do." Rondo couldn't keep herself from sighing.

"What is it, Lieutenant... MacKenzie, I think? Is that right?" He looked at her with dim, indulgent interest.

"Yes, sir." Christina tried not to let his attitude shake her resolve. "All I want to know is... why? Why are you doing this? You're killing our people, you're siding with criminals, why?"

"That's a fair question... an excellent question," Treize said. "But like most excellent questions, it is difficult to answer simply. Suffice to say, that there is a goal I wish very much to achieve, Lieutenant. In light of that, it would be ignoble of me to turn any of these people away."

"That's- you can't possibly-" Christina was speechless.

"Hey, if it's question-and-answer time, I got one!" Michelo shouted Christna down. He leaned forward into the camera, his long nose appearing mountainous. "Rondo, you ever told your goons how I got onto the Dogos Gear to do that Flay chick?"

Rondo wrinkled her nose in displeasure. "It hasn't come up before, Michelo, but I suppose it's time to hash that out. Especially given how you broke our agreement." Johnny's brows knit. "Your agreement...?"

"We brought Michelo Chariot back from Loum under guard, because we thought we were going to fight the Frosts. We still don't know how he escaped," Christina's voice was terse.

"I escaped because Domon Kasshu couldn't do his job!"

The promise of righteous indignation breathed new life into Anavel Gato. "How... how could you deal with such a wretched creature..."

"Because the Beyonder told me we were supposed to be on the same side." Rondo's statement was blunt. "I doubt it was entirely chance that lead me to meet Amuro's group at Loum, but I met Michelo shortly after. Michelo was clearly the man the Beyonder described as my intended ally, but given the choice... well, it was obvious what was most to my advantage. My plan was to shoot Michelo in the back once we'd taken care of everything else."

Rondo paused to smile, as if contemplating the act. "I suppose you escaped just in time, then, Mister Chariot."

Michelo grinned. "You conniving bitch. You realize I'm going to tear you apart the next time you're within reach, right?"

"You're welcome to try. You've absolutely no hope of winning," Rondo all but snorted in contempt.

"You think you're too good for me?" Michelo asked.

Rondo laughed. "I'm too good for the lot of you. Before this battle is over you'll be eating each other, while I'll play the black queen with a battalion of white knights at her back. You have absolutely no hope of victory, Colonel Treize."

"If you're meant to be one of my allies, Lady Rondo, there could still be a place for you here." Treize was serious. The shock on Haman and Cima's faces bordered on comical.

"Don't flatter yourself, Colonel."

Heat finally entered Treize's eyes. "You cannot believe the lines of our factions were chosen without reason, Lady Rondo. The Beyonder has given us the perfect battlefield. It is beneath us to sully it with selfish, small-minded acts."

"House Sahaku does not take kindly to being manipulated." Rondo's voice was steel. "By any creature, regardless of its divine pretensions."

Treize cooled, instantly. "I see. I regret your decision, Lady Rondo... I fear you shall come to regret it, too, when next we meet."

With that, the Granshirio cut transmission.

-X-X-X-

"Was what you said true, Rondo Mina Sahaku?" Domon asked.

"Was what you said true, Domon Kasshu?"

He paused. "Yes."

"You're a fool," Rondo said, "If an honest one. I was also being honest. I should hope none of you people fault me for finding your company preferable to the likes of the Granshirio."

"I certainly can't," Johnny said. "But you should have volunteered this information sooner. We could have saved that girl's life."

"Trust me, Commander. If I'd had any idea of what Chariot was going to do, I would have killed him at Loum."

"Gato, are you... well, you're not okay, obviously, but... is there anything we can do?" Christina took a few steps toward him, hesitating.

"No. Thank you, Lieutenant MacKenzie, but no." Gato didn't look at Christina as he spoke. His voice was haggard, if not unkind. "I'm going to brief Mister Asuka on our current situation."

Gato rose to leave the briefing room. He paused as he passed by Domon. "... Mister Kasshu. Domon. Don't throw your life away in the name of keeping your hands clean."

"I'm not a soldier," Domon said.

"No, you aren't. That's why you don't have the right to throw your life away." Characteristic force returned to Gato's voice. "Can you imagine that we ordinary men would have the will to go on, if we saw Epyon destroy the likes of you? We have martyrs enough, Domon Kasshu."

Domon clenched his fist. Right now, his King of Hearts insignia would not burn. "I understand."

Gato nodded to him, then made his way from the bridge. Domon ran out, seconds later.

"... while we're still together. Lady Rondo, I think we need to call a strategy meeting as soon as possible, so we can plan out our assault on the Granshirio," Johnny said.

"Our assault on the Granshirio? So you have something in mind after all," Rondo said.

"Yes. Khushrenada's left a clear path to victory open to us, if everyone's willing to cooperate."

"I can't say anything like that is very clear to me," Christina said. "What are you thinking, Commander Ridden?"

"It's a... I'll be honest, Lieutenant MacKenzie. It's a very Zeonic strategy. You probably won't like it."

Christina sighed. "I don't think I can afford to be choosy at this point."

"We'll talk strategy tomorrow," Rondo proclaimed. "That's when we'll set out for whatever destination Treize has settled on. You two get the word out this evening. For now, I think I plan to spend the evening in my quarters, drinking myself into a stupor."

"Coordinators can get drunk?" Christina asked.

"... not really, but I was hoping you wouldn't figure that out." Rondo looked unhappy about having to be honest again.

"We all need rest, Lady Rondo. We'll see you again tomorrow." Johnny favored her with a salute, which did much to set Rondo's heart at ease.

-X-X-X-

"Stellar!"

The girl paused, glancing back over one shoulder. "Garrod?"

Garrod was back in his civilian clothes, like the others. He paused for a minute to catch his breath. "Hey, I... I wanted to talk to you about the stuff earlier today, you know..."

Stellar giggled. "When Garrod fell asleep in his cockpit? And Heero had to pull you out so we could listen to Mister Treize tell us about what the people on the other ship said?"

"Uh... y-yeah, sure. Hey, speaking of Heero, you know where he is?"

"Um... he's talking to Mister Treize about something, I think..."

"Yes!" Garrod pumped a fist in victory. "Yes yes yes yes!"

She peered at him, curious. "Stellar doesn't understand..."

"I've got to tell you something, Stellar, and you've got to promise not to tell Heero or Kira or anybody unless you let me know first, okay?" Garrod's eyes were urgent.

Stellar nodded. "Stellar won't tell. What is it?"

"Stellar, I believe you."

"Believe...?"

"The stuff you've said... about the Izumo and things not happening the way the adults say it did! I believe you've been right all along!"

Stellar's eyes lit up. Her smile became enormous. "Really?"

"Yes. Stellar, look, I'm willing to help you go back. I can't trust Treize anymore and I don't want to fight for him."

"Yes! Stellar wants to go back! Garrod can meet Shin and you can be friends!" She grabbed Garrod's hands, bouncing with excitement.

Garrod flushed a little. "Okay... okay, just... you can't let on that we're up to anything, okay? Not until I have time to think of something. Treize won't let us go back and we're screwed if somebody tells on us."

She knit her brows and set her jaw. "Stellar will be sneaky."

"Yes! Perfect! So-"

"Hey, Stellar? I was just thinking, do you know which way to the cafeteria?" It was Kira, who was rather surprised to see that Stellar wasn't alone. "- Garrod? I thought you went back to your room?"

Garrod couldn't hold back a sigh of relief. "Kira! Your timing sucks, man."

"Oh, uh- I'm sorry? What were you talking about, anyway?"

Stellar said nothing, instead looking at Garrod expectantly.

Garrod groaned. Things were already not going his way. "Kira, I was just saying to Stellar... don't you get the feeling that we're not really safe here, sometimes?"

"All the time," Kira said. "But it can't be helped, can it?"

"Stellar wants to run away and see her friends."

"But Stellar, your friends are here. If you ran away, you couldn't see us anymore." Kira smiled gently, but clearly didn't understand her.

Garrod could see how Michelo had gotten away with so many flat-out lies now. When someone did something Stellar didn't understand, she just went quiet. Garrod wasn't sure if Stellar had been trained or programmed to do that, but taking advantage of it was obviously easy.

He felt bad for her. "Kira, I think she has friends on the Izumo. I'm not convinced they're all bad guys anymore."

Kira frowned. "Garrod, I'd really like to believe it, but... it doesn't sound that way."

"Michelo tells lies, Kira. Stellar just doesn't know what to do about it."

Something about that got through to Kira, at least a little. Even he could tell that there was something shifty about Michelo Chariot. "... I don't think you're lying, Stellar. It's just... I wish Athrun was here."

Garrod arched an eyebrow. "- what?"

"Athrun. He's my friend from home. He's better at thinking about this kind of thing than I am..."

"Yeah, I get your drift. I wish Tifa was here..."

"Stellar misses Shin."

"Well... look, let's not do anything hasty. Heero's pretty mad at you anyway, Garrod. We'll just see how things go and... maybe something will come up?"

"Yeah. I guess we don't have a choice, do we?" Garrod felt a bit defeated.

Kira seemed too unsure of himself to want to do anything, even if Garrod had spelled out every little thing he'd overheard by eavesdropping on the negotiations. If he couldn't get Kira to believe him, he had no chance of getting through to Al.

"Anyway... Stellar, can I show you where the cafeteria is? I wasn't sure if you knew, for this part of the ship..."

Stellar nodded and soon she and Kira were walking away. Garrod let them go. He didn't want to eat or do anything, really, but figure out a way off the ship. The way seemed closed to him now, though, and Garrod wondered if he'd ever have a chance at all before their Mobile Suits deployed for battle.

-X-X-X-

I'm not sure if the thing about coordinators and getting drunk is ever mentioned in canon, but it seems like it would stand to reason.

The main music I listened to for this chapter was a power metal band called Dionysus. So I guess I'll recommend their "Keep the Spirit" album here.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada (Commander) / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	43. Chapter 43

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Izumo conceives its plan for defeating the Granshirio's forces, but it will demand a risky gamble.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"To begin, let's consider the field of battle. In accordance with my request, Colonel Khushrenada intends to engage us in high Earth orbit. The coordinates will place us over Europe." A screen filled the wall behind Johnny, projecting a computer-generated image of Earth.

Johnny continued. "We've all learned from hard experience that when an enemy retreats, the Beyonder inevitably backs him or her up with reinforcements. This cycle keeps extending the duration of the Gundam War, leading to more pointless loss of life. I believe what unites us as a fighting squadron is a shared belief that this state of affairs is intolerable."

Murmurs of assent rose from the gathered pilots that Johnny addressed. He expected that to go over well, though he still wondered how the pilots- the Earthnoids in particular- would take what was to come. While Johnny could now accept that none of his allies were fools, they did tend toward sentimental thinking.

"If we wish to end the Gundam War, then it is imperative in this battle that we destroy the Granshirio, so our enemy cannot retreat. Treize has consented to position the Granshirio such that he fights with the Earth at his back. I propose that we use our second warship, the Dogos Gear, to exploit this vulnerability."

The computer-generated simulation behind Johnny displayed a floating black brick that represented the Granshirio, positioned in a geosynchronous orbit high above Earth. A black egg-shape approached from space, representing the Izumo. The Dogos Gear approached from a similar vector, represented as a grey brick.

"We've agreed not to fire our cannons and it is in our interest to hold to this agreement for as long as Treize honors his agreements. Since we lack the personnel to make proper use of the Dogos Gear, I propose that we operate it remotely to execute a ramming maneuver against the Granshirio."

Johnny heard gasps, again as expected. Even Rondo looked surprised. Johnny could tell that Gato had already figured out where his plan was going, though. Zeon pilots in the One Year War were always exposed to situations like this during basic training simulations. Until the Federation rolled out its V-Project machines, gravity had probably killed as many Zeon fighting men as the Federation's soldiers.

"If we position the Dogos Gear correctly and keep its engines to full, the force it generates should be sufficient to push the Granshirio into a re-entry vector. While we know little of the Granshirio's true technological capability, I find it highly unlikely that it would survive a ramming maneuver with its hull intact given the Dogos Gear's sheer mass. Even if the Granshirio could survive re-entry under normal conditions, hull damage should render that completely impossible."

The computer simulation dutifully rammed the grey brick lengthwise through the larger black brick. The black brick was forced back toward Earth, until gravity took hold of it. The two entwined bricks began to tumble, igniting into a ball of roughly simulated fire once the atmospheric friction was too much.

"I now open the floor to questions. Captain Ray?" Johnny gestured with his pointer.

"What's the role for Mobile Suits in this operation?" Amuro asked. He'd been the last arrival to the meeting, not bothering to change out of his mechanic's overalls. Hachi, the artificially intelligent computer tablet that once belonged to Lowe Gear, laid across his lap.

"There are a number of ways Mobile Suits could support the operation. We know that Domon Kasshu has agreed to duel the Epyon. If we wished to surprise the Granshirio forces, we could have Shining Gundam approach ahead of the Izumo."

The simulation reset itself, putting the Granshirio and Dogos Gear's representations back into their proper places. A white speck appeared before the Izumo's black ovoid. It moved forward to be met by a red speck that clearly represented Epyon.

Johnny continued. "Simple prudence dictates that we send an MS escort to support Shining Gundam, in the event that Treize's forces intend to break the agreement. I would recommend two units. That would leave the remaining five units available to support the Dogos Gear as it approached its target. The MS could deploy as a vanguard to suppress resistance from Treize's MS forces and ensure that our enemies are unable to execute an evasive maneuver."

The simulation followed Johnny as he spoke. Two more white motes appeared just behind Shining Gundam's, moving forward with the Izumo. As the simulated animation of the ramming maneuver played out, this time five more white motes spilled out, fanning around the two doomed ships.

"This is a risky plan, Commander Ridden." Rondo sounded highly skeptical. "What if Treize decides to move against the Izumo while it's undermanned? He could deal with the loss of his ship by seizing ours."

"I think the Izumo would only be in danger in the event of Treize losing command of his forces. To be blunt... how could a clearly militaristic man like Colonel Treize be so indifferent to the realities of ship-to-ship combat in a situation like this? The only explanation I can conceive is that, given the demonstrated strength of the Epyon..."

"... you think Treize is from a world where there are no ship-to-ship battles, because hardly anyone bothers to build warships anymore." Rondo hadn't considered this possibility.

Johnny nodded. "A warship of Universal Century or even Cosmic Era style would be nothing but a target in a world where MS like Epyon exist. I cannot imagine a man from such a world thinking to seize an enemy ship if placed under duress. We can exploit that and Treize's obsession with Shining Gundam to gain the upper hand."

"That's the 'clear path to victory' you were talking about yesterday," Christina said. "It makes sense. But how can we be sure we can actually pull off a ramming maneuver successfully? What if he sends out a force to cut the Dogos Gear to pieces? His remaining forces may be capable of that."

"Very astute, Lieutenant MacKenzie. Yes, this is where the true risk of the maneuver lies. There are most likely MS under Treize's command that we know nothing about. Of the ones we do know about, it is easy to imagine that Michelo Chariot's Neros Gundam or Haman Karn's Qubeley could do significant damage to the Dogos Gear."

Rondo smirked. "It's those funny little DRAGOONs that are the Qubeley's anti-ship weapons, aren't they? Gold Frame's Maga no Ikutachi has shut them down before."

"That still leaves about half of us dealing with a Gundam Fighter backed up by who-knows-what." Witz didn't even try to sound optimistic. "Those are some pretty terrible odds, Johnny."

"And what about Stellar? What if they leave her on the ship or something?" Shin asked. "Garma barely got her off the ship alive when White Base got destroyed."

"Also... uh, do any people live on the Beyonder's Earth?" Shiro asked. "A wad of metal the size of two giant warships is gonna spray the surface with debris... probably stuff big enough to take out city blocks. We don't have the right to put people in danger like that."

"One at a time, please," Johnny said. "Given Mr. Kasshu's knowledge of Neros Gundam, I believe forming an effective strategy against it is possible. It's simply a matter of reviewing the data and understanding our enemy. He may be fearsome on foot but that doesn't mean he's unbeatable in a Mobile Suit.

Regarding the threat posed by debris, every bit of data I was able to collect about Earth settlement while we were at Von Braun suggests the Beyonder's Earth has an extremely low population density. Most estimates put it around one percent of Earth's population at the beginning of the One Year War."

"That's... what, a hundred million people?" Shiro asked. "That's crazy... I mean, to be all the people in the entire world?"

Witz shrugged. "I'd say that doesn't sound so crazy to me, but I doubt you guys wanna hear it."

Johnny nodded. "Given those circumstances, any cities that do exist will be mostly empty. I can't promise that our attack will have no consequences for bystanders... that's not the nature of war. I don't think this maneuver is excessively dangerous to civilians, though."

Rondo scowled. "On a planet with only a hundred million inhabitants, I imagine starvation and exposure will do far more damage than we can."

"So what about Stellar?" Shin was insistent, his eye glaring.

"It seems highly improbable to me that she won't be deployed, if only as part of a psychological maneuver."

"But what if she's not?" Shin was beginning to sound irritated.

"I have an idea," Amuro said.

Johnny was surprised, but relieved. "Take the floor then, Captain." Johnny returned to a spare seat while Amuro headed up to the display screen, Hachi in hand.

"So... to explain this idea, I guess I need to explain something else. As you all know, I've been piloting the Turn-A Gundam for awhile now, but I've also been trying to understand its full capabilities. It's been obvious to me from our first battle that Turn-A had functions that neither Loran nor myself ever figured out how to use properly."

As he spoke, Amuro configured Hachi to connect wirelessly to the display screen. Moments later, the simulation vanished to instead display the flashing words Hachi used to communicate. "Hello, everybody!"

"I can't say I entirely understand Turn-A yet... or where it came from or even how old it really is... but Hachi has helped me interpret its systems well enough to uncover two very interesting abilities. I used Hachi to record this test remotely, so I could confirm my suspicions."

The display screen switched to a static shot of the Turn-A, standing in the middle of the Izumo's hangar. A low-frequency humming sound emerged from the screen's attached speakers. The air around the Turn-A began to waver, the Mobile Suit's line becoming blurred and indistinct before it faded from sight entirely.

Gato was astonished. "... a complete stealth system?"

"Mirage Colloid? Or just something else like it?" Rondo asked.

Shin brightened immediately. "You could use it to get inside the Granshirio..."

"... while Rondo stayed on the field to deal with the Qubeley," Amuro said. "While the invisibility effect is similar to a Mirage Colloid sheathe, the technological basis of it is very different. Turn-A seems to be powered by a sort of futuristic Minovsky Reactor that can generate enormous amounts of power. At high enough output levels, it's capable of generating an extremely powerful version of what we call an I-Field."

"An I-Field so powerful it deflects photons..." Christina was amazed.

"It's unbeatable!" Shiro said. "How could anybody fight a Mobile Suit you can't see and can't shoot?"

"You would be completely immune to conventional beam fire, wouldn't you? Could a beam saber even penetrate an I-Field that strong?" Johnny asked.

"I'm honestly not sure. There's no precedent for how Minovsky physics work at this kind of intensity. Even in my time it's just not possible to generate a field like this," Amuro said. "My guess is that the I-Field would extinguish beam sabers, but there's a number of other effects that would be theoretically possible, too."

"That's an ability worthy of a Gundam Fighter," Domon said. "There's no need to fear a battle with Michelo Chariot now."

"So how's you having a crazy badass machine gonna save Shin's girlfriend?" Witz asked.

"Well, Turn-A's I-Field is strong enough that it can become invisible to electronic detection as well as the naked eye. If I moved in while Haman was distracted enough, I'm sure I could get into the Granshirio undetected. Finding and extracting Stellar at that point should be easy. I could use Turn-A's chest cannon to shoot my way out if necessary."

"I still don't understand it. How can a machine of that size have a reactor that powerful? Where could you put it?" Gato asked.

"Well... that's the other interesting thing I've discovered about Turn-A. For the most part, it's completely hollow. The reactor seems designed to generate a number of intense I-Fields in its body and limb cavities. Turn-A uses the magnetic force generated by the I-Fields to move itself instead of something more conventional. The ability to generate the external I-Field just seems to be a side effect of Turn-A's movement system."

"Hollow...?" Gato looked utterly baffled. "I couldn't believe this sort of technology existed, if I hadn't already seen the proof..."

"Firing a mega-particle beam cannon from within the Granshirio itself would be an extraordinarily effective way to compromise its hull integrity," Johnny said.

"Or to make sure it fries itself once it gets knocked into re-entry," Shiro said.

"Could we save the Dogos Gear, then?" Christina asked.

"I see no reason why we should," Johnny said. "It's served us well, but in the end the Dogos Gear is an oversized Federal vessel that we acquired by chance. Sacrificing it to ensure the Granshirio's destruction is a more than acceptable trade-off."

"It'd be nice to see it go," Shin muttered.

Gato grinned. "A ramming maneuver would certainly let us command the Granshirio forces' attention."

"Yes, I must confess that I like the general lines of your plan, Commander Ridden," Rondo said. "But now we face the question of how to deploy our units, don't we?"

"Obviously, no one can be left on board during the operation," Johnny said. "We can send parties over to the ship to bring over any supplies or equipment we need to salvage. I intend to stay with the ship until the last moment in my Gelgoog to operate the maneuver."

"I'll need to stay with you to defend the ship from Haman," Rondo said. "What about the rest of you?"

"I'd like to remain with the Izumo, if I could," Gato said. "If Mister Kasshu needs back-up, I want to provide it."

"You don't want to avenge yourself on Haman Karn?" Rondo asked.

"Commander Karn..." Gato trailed off. He took a deep breath. "... perhaps I should, but I cannot reconcile myself to the thought. Perhaps I have betrayed Zeon here, driven by the Beyonder's invisible hand..."

"Lieutenant-" Johnny began to interrupt.

"- Commander Ridden, please." Gato's voice was firm. "I am simply uncertain. Perhaps the Beyonder's influence somehow explains Commander Karn's apparent treachery... while I have thoughts like this, I am unfit to take up a post where an engagement with her is certain. Truly, I would rather face the Epyon again."

"I would be honored by your presence." Domon's tone allowed no room for argument. The matter of Gato's post was settled.

"Not that I've got any love lost for Haman," Witz began, "but I'd just as well sit out the Dogos Gear mess. I'm no super-ace and even an upgraded Airmaster's got its limits."

"Well? How would the rest of you feel about playing vanguard for the Dogos Gear?" Rondo asked.

"I've already committed myself, I think," Amuro shrugged.

"It's the post I'd ask for," Christina said. "I want to be in the thick of it when the Granshirio's forces deploy against us."

"Same here," Shin said. "We covered a lot of anti-ship tactics at the academy. I can probably be useful."

"That would settle it, then, wouldn't it?" Rondo asked. "Commander Ridden, since this is your strategy, take some time and prepare some tactical simulations for us to study. I can handle mobilizing the Dogos Gear and organizing scavenging teams in the meanwhile."

"I was thinking I could compile some information and footage of the Mobile Suits we know we're going to be facing," Amuro said. "A good counter-strategy can compensate for imbalances in machine ability."

"Also a fine idea. Is there anything else?" Rondo waited. The room was silent. "Good. Then you're all dismissed. Make good use of the time we have before we get to Earth."

-X-X-X-

You wouldn't think of Dream Theater as "plotting the fiery destruction of your enemies," music, but I mostly listened to assorted Dream Theater songs while writing this chapter. So that's my music recommendation for this chapter.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	44. Chapter 44

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Granshirio plots. Garrod's situation grows more desperate. Kira faces a difficult decision.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Granshirio's command accommodations were enormous and lavish by the standards of most warships (though Haman didn't seem impressed). Treize picked one of its grandest chambers for his combat briefing, a lavish theater-like space with five rows of velvet-lined seats arranged half-rings that descended toward a central podium and projection screen. It could have seated four squadrons of pilots.

Treize and Heero were already present when the pilots began to trickle in, arriving in twos and threes. Treize stood behind the podium, back ramrod-straight. He had brought copious personal notes in the form of a tablet computer and a great stack of papers on the podium. He generally seemed to prefer the papers to the more sophisticated device.

Heero sat in the front-center seat, silent as ever. He had no word of greeting when Haman Karn and the other adult pilots grouped together in the row behind. Heero had no reaction when Michelo stretched his long legs over the seat next to him, his feet inches to the right of Heero's face.

Kira's group of younger pilots crowded in to Heero's left when they arrived in a chattering group of four. Allelujah took the seat nearest Heero, largely to make sure Garrod or Kira were out of harm's way if they ended up saying something Heero found ridiculous.

"Thank you, everyone," Treize said. "As you are well aware, the Izumo has refused our offer of surrender and terms of battle have been set. Now, we must prepare ourselves for the coming battle. While I do not believe a complex strategy will be necessary, our allies who have defected from the Izumo faction have provided us with much information about the enemy."

Treize lit up a screen that display a simple, abstract map of their tactical situation. The Granshirio was a black dot over a great blue-green sphere that represented Earth. A grey dot represented the Izumo, a red arrow indicating its inward trajectory. Another arrow, this one dotted, appeared by a yellow dot that represented the Dogos Gear.

"The Dogos Gear is, I believe, not a significant tactical consideration in the battle before us," Treize began. "Between the terms of battle and our opponent's lack of personnel, it simply cannot be used effectively. At most, our enemies may hold it in reserve as a means of escape, but I otherwise find it difficult to believe they'd even go to the trouble of bringing it in from moon."

"They could use it for a ramming manuever," Cima said. "Or as a diversion, maybe."

"She has a point," Haman added. "The Beyonder makes it feasible for a single person to operate even a ship of that size."

"I see combat in your world requires thinking in naval terms," Treize said. He seemed to find the idea quite amusing.

"Don't take it the wrong way, girls, but this ain't your world. If they try something as dumb as throwin' a ship at us, we can just tear it up."

Haman arched an eyebrow. "You've been aboard the Dogos Gear. Destroying it would be far from trivial."

"Epyon could do it." Heero's voice was flat but perfectly confident.

"You'll be fighting that 'King of Hearts' person, won't you?" Cima asked.

"Not for long."

Heero's still-perfect confidence drew stares from the other pilots... except Michelo, who cackled.

"Khushrenada!" Michelo leaned forward and yelled. "Tell 'em what we got in mind for the King of Hearts."

Treize smiled. "Epyon's initial difficulties in fighting Domon Kasshu's Shining Gundam, I am sad to say, should be attributed to the Mobile Suit rather than the pilot. A Mobile Fighter's way of combat has no precedent in my world. Epyon's efficacy as a Mobile Suit comes from its operating system, which can process and predict combat potentialities much swifter than any human mind. The Shining Gundam's behavior was simply outside its programming."

Michelo grinned. "But I've fought the King of Hearts before. Neros's black box has plenty of data on Shining Gundam."

"Neros Gundam contains a 'black box' that automatically records combat data," Treize continued. "It's quite a treasure trove of data on the Shining Gundam and other Mobile Fighters. I'm in the process of incorporating this new information into the Epyon System's programming. A second battle between Heero and the King of Hearts will play out very differently."

"Would it be fair to say, then, that our plan is simply to hold off enemy forces until Epyon has defeated the Shining Gundam?" Al asked.

"I believe so," Treize said. "My hope is that the death of the King of Hearts would prompt the Izumo's forces to surrender. That is our best chance of a quick victory."

Michelo snorted. "What, even though we've got better machines? Why not just mop 'em all up?"

"We would run too great a risk of routing them," Treize said. "The difficulty of space combat, for us, is that it offers a vast number of escape routes. Hunting down a survivor who fled could take months."

"S-so, it's better if we don't kill anybody unless we absolutely have to... right? What's important is just convincing them that they should give up?" Kira sounded very hopeful on this count.

Treize nodded. "The ability to defeat any enemy is well within the grasp of every pilot here, I am sure. That strength is not the power that wins a war, though. Wars are won and lost by faith alone. We must prove, on this battlefield, that our faith in ourselves is absolute and unshakeable."

"If we're going to be buying Epyon time, what are the key units we want to focus on suppressing?" Al asked. "I believe Rondo Mina Sahaku's Gold Frame has been mentioned as a key target. What about Amuro Ray, what would he be piloting?"

"Beyond those two... honestly, there's not much on the other side worth taking seriously," Haman said. "Michelo has promised some sort of plan to handle Gold Frame, which would allow my Qubeley to contribute substantially more to the battle."

"Ray's piloting a funny-lookin' mustachioed suit called the Turn-A, last I saw," Michelo said. "Dunno if it's anything special. Doubt it."

"It doesn't have to be, if the White Devil's piloting it," Cima said.

"So... we're mostly gonna be waiting on orders during the fight, right?" Garrod asked. "'Cause to me it sounds like we're just gonna respond to whatever the Izumo people do against us."

"That's correct enough, Garrod. I intend to coordinate the battle from the field. It will be vital that pilots with no commitments respond swiftly and faithfully to orders. Doing so will minimize loss of life."

"You sound rather like you intend to improvise a lot of this, Colonel Treize," Haman said.

"Flexibility is an enormous asset on the battlefield," Treize said. "So long as we all keep this in mind, I believe we can adjourn for now."

The gathered pilots seemed quite happy to end the planning session, though Heero showed no signs of leaving. Treize gestured toward Al as he began to get up from his chair.

"Ah, Allelujah," Treize said. "If you might remain behind the others. I have a few questions for you."

Kira and the others paused, but Al waved to them to go ahead without him. "Of course, Colonel. Kira, I'll catch up with you later."

"S-sure," Kira said. He paused, then turned to awkwardly follow Garrod and Stellar out.

Treize waited until only the three of them remained in the vast room. "Allelujah," Treize began. "What is your opinion of your cohorts?"

"Do you mean the other pilots, sir?" Allelujah.

Treize nodded. "Your friends, primarily."

Al found the question odd, but answered nonetheless. "Kira is soft-hearted, but his simulation performance is astonishing. He'll be a tremendous asset on the field. Stellar seems loyal enough, though her simulation performance isn't anything special. Garrod..." Al furrowed his brows and paused, searching for what he could say that wouldn't sound bad.

Treize laughed. "I see you've noticed it, too. Heero's told me some things about Garrod's behavior lately that I find very concerning."

"What do you mean?"

Heero spoke. "I think Garrod's going to betray us."

Al blinked in surprise. "I honestly can't picture that. Garrod takes things too lightly, but... a traitor? It doesn't make sense. What would he stand to gain from something like that?"

Heero scowled. "Stellar."

"You think he'd try to run off with her?" Al could almost picture that, though it still felt uncharacteristic.

"I am not certain, but there are some signs of it. I am sure you are aware that Stellar is... not a normal young lady, Allelujah." Treize's voice was exceedingly gentle.

"No. She was made to follow orders."

"If Garrod did lead her into some sort of foolishness, it could also serve to bog us down here. Perhaps for years," Treize said. "As a commander, I cannot permit that."

"So what are we to do about it?" Al said. "I could try to talk him out of it..."

Treize shook his head. "If we are misjudging Garrod, a confrontation might push him into treachery anyway. Instead, I'd simply like to ask you to keep an eye on him until we deploy for battle against the Dogos Gear."

"To see if he tries to go AWOL?" Al asked.

Treize nodded. "If he does, give him a chance to surrender himself. If he won't be reasonable, then... it is a terrible thing, but..."

"... you'd need me to execute him," Al finished.

"I'm afraid so. Do you think you could do such a thing?" Treize asked.

"I could. I will." Al's jaw tightened. "Let me try to head this off, though. I can't tell Kira about something like this, but if I tell him to keep an eye on Stellar, he'll do it. Garrod wouldn't run off by himself."

"Preventive measures are far preferable to a pointless death," Treize agreed. "Thank you, Allelujah. You're dismissed."

Al saluted and left the room, moving slowly and thoughtfully. Treize waited until he was one before he turned his attention to Heero. Right now, the boy had difficulty looking Treize in the eye.

"It is entirely my fault that Epyon was not in a perfect state the last time you used it, Heero," Treize said. "This time, however, you must take care to be an absolutely perfect pilot."

"Epyon won't lose this time." The quiet reprimand wasn't lost on Heero. "This time, for sure, I'm going to see the future."

-X-X-X-

Garrod could tell that this was his last chance to get through to Kira. They sat in one of the mess halls with only Stellar, eating MREs that were better-than-average (or so Kira told him; it was some of the best food Garrod had ever tasted at all). Kira was clearly pensive, distracted by thoughts of something.

"What's on your mind?" Garrod asked.

"Me? Oh, um..." Kira hesitated only a moment before he continued. "The battle. It's been awhile since I've fought."

"You're not afraid you're gonna die or something, are you?"

"Oh... no. It's not that. I'm afraid of..." Kira trailed off. He aimlessly prodded a serving of mixed vegetables with his fork. "... I'm afraid of people dying."

"Any people in particular?"

Kira shook his head. "No. That's the part that's... I don't know how to explain it. I know we have to fight, but I don't want anyone to die."

Garrod jerked his head up in surprise. "Uh. What? That's kinda... I mean, I dunno. What do you do with a Mobile Suit in a fight that's not gonna kill anybody?"

"You can shoot to disable!"

Garrod continued to stare. "That sounds... hard. Like, impossible-hard."

Kira looked away. His voice was painfully sincere. "Well... it's definitely harder than just fighting to survive, but... it's a lot easier than than living with so much blood on your hands."

Garrod thought he saw a chance. "So when you say you don't want to kill anybody, you mean the guys on the Izumo, too?"

"... I guess I do. I know they're probably not good people, but... they're still people."

"What about that guy Michelo mentioned? The guy who, y'know... killed that girl you knew."

Garrod regretted bringing things up this way the instant the words were out of his mouth. Kira suddenly stopped looking like the shy, retiring Kira that Garrod regarded as a bit of a pushover.

Bringing up his friend's murder awakened a fury in Kira that transformed his face. There was no more gentleness there. "That's... that's different!" Kira brought a frustrated fist down the metal table. The reverberation produced a thunderous sound.

"Whoa... hey, I'm sorry, I just..."

"That's completely different. I won't forgive anyone for hurting Flay. She probably... she was probably looking for me the entire time she was here, and I... I was too late, again."

While Kira's anger was startling, it didn't last long. He trailed off, the fury dissolving swiftly into a profound sadness.

Garrod's heart was still racing. He could feel Stellar staring at them quizzically from across the table.

"Kira, just this once... just this one, I'm gonna tell you something I shouldn't," Garrod said. "If you repeat this to anybody, you've killed me. Okay?"

Kira's eyes widened in alarm. "Garrod?"

The words tumbled from Garrod's mouth. His voice dropped to a whisper, though there was no one around to hear. "I tapped the line when Treize talked to the Izumo. He's been feeding us a line of bullshit from the start! I swear, I heard Michelo say himself that he killed that girl. He's blaming some other guy just to mess with you!"

"Garrod, I..." Kira's mouth moved soundlessly for a moment. "I don't think you're a liar, but... this doesn't make any sense. Treize hasn't been bad to us, and... w-why would Michelo lie to me? He doesn't know me, he can't know anything about the Cosmic Era..."

Garrod grimaced. "I don't know. Okay? I don't know anything else besides what I've heard and what Stellar told me. So, I'm getting out of here when the fight starts and I'm taking Stellar with me-"

"- Garrod!" Kira was utterly shocked.

"- and you can come or not, but Kira, I swear I'm not fighting for Treize and you shouldn't either. Somebody on the Izumo cares about Stellar a lot and I'm gonna take her back to him. That's the only right thing to do here."

Kira looked like he was going to cry. "Garrod, this is crazy! You're going to get yourself killed!"

"If Treize was any kind of nice guy, why would he kill me over this, huh? Why would he make Stellar stay here if she didn't want to be here?"

"You don't understand!" Kira was frantic. "When people have to take sides like this, it makes them go crazy. They get too afraid to think with their hearts anymore. The Izumo won't accept you, they'll just shoot you down!"

"Then if you want a battle where nobody dies, I guess you'll have to watch my back for me!"

"Garrod!"

"Why are Stellar's friends mad?" Her voice broke the tension between them. The two young men looked at her and didn't seem entirely able to account for themselves.

"Stellar doesn't want her friends to fight each other right now," she said. There was a gentle sense of reprimand in her voice. "It's bad to argue before a mission."

"Yeah, well... sometimes a guy can't help it." Garrod scowled.

"Garrod, I won't betray you, but... please don't," Kira said. "That's the last I'll say to you about it."

Nothing more on the subject was said between the three of them, though Kira's fear and Garrod's stubbornness hung heavily in the air about them. Stellar, wrapped in her unnatural innocence, was oblivious. All she knew is that she would see Shin again soon.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Yeah, so JAM Project's latest song is for a show called Cardfight Vanguard that has nothing to do with Gundam, but man I listened to it a lot when I wrote this. I suppose it's the music recommendation by default.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	45. Chapter 45

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Domon teaches Shin a few things.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Izumo was less than 24 hours from the beginning of its likely engagement with the Granshirio. Teams had long since brought the last of the salvage over from the Dogos Gear. The Mobile Suits were tuned and ready for deployment. Most people aboard ship were elsewhere, preparing themselves for the battle to come.

Shin Asuka was in the Izumo's hangar with Domon Kasshu. Shin had hit a major milestone in his martial arts training. He had finally hit the metal sheet he'd been punching for the better part of two weeks hard enough to create a series of shallow indentations, the sort made by human knuckles.

Domon was looking over the sheet with a master's eye. "Good. Your fighting spirit is still small, but it is beginning to burn."

"My what?" Shin didn't comprehend.

"Your fighting spirit. A man who wishes to walk the path of Touhoufuhai must cultivate an overflowing qi that burns brightest in the fact of danger. This is fighting spirit, the power that defines a Gundam Fighter."

"You mean like... when your hand glows?"

"Something like that. Now the time has come to test your fighting ability, Shin Asuka."

"What, you mean, like... a practice fight?"

"Yes."

Shin felt a momentary shock of fear and elation. "Uh... sure, I guess... but Domon-"

"Unacceptable!" Domon shouted. Shin was so startled he thought he might jump out of his skin. "A student has no right to his master's given name!"

"S-sorry..."

"From this moment onward, you will address me only as 'shishou'. Anything else will be an unforgivable insult! Is that clear?" Domon's voice echoed like thunder in the hangar bay.

"Yes, sir!" Shin's instincts betrayed him. He raised his hand to salute, reflexively.

Domon scowled. He roared his disapproval. "IS THAT CLEAR?"

"Yes, shishou!" Shin dropped his hand to his side and stood, mortified and paralyzed.

Domon was satisfied.

The better part of the next half-hour was devoted to teaching Shin how to correctly greet his master by bringing his fists together and bowing. Being a coordinator offered Shin no natural advantages as a student of Touhoufuhai. Shin struggled to master movements that felt archaic and alien to him, but in time he managed an acceptable bow.

"You shall greet me this way every time we train together, is that clear? Most of your training will still be alone, as you develop your body's inner strength. But now, you are just barely ready to begin learning the basics," Domon said.

"Yes, shishou." The word still rolled awkwardly off of Shin's tongue.

"Now, you are fit for a sparring match. Show me your fighting stance."

"I just know the stuff I learned at ZAFT Academy-"

Domon narrowed his eyes in displeasure. Shin could tell that it was time to stop talking.

Shin took up the sort of stance he might have used in his old self-defense classes. His fists were in front of him like a boxer, his feet apart, knees slightly bent. To Domon's eye, it was barely better than a street brawler's form, loose and undisciplined. This was good though; it meant he wouldn't have to spend much time un-teaching Shin fighting techniques that disagreed with Touhoufuhai's form.

Even Shin could see the difference between his stance and Domon's. Where he was loose to anticipate any threat, Domon swept his arm back with a master's confidence. The placement of Domon's feet and legs had virtuoso precision. Domon's hands, though spaced widely and open, would clearly guard most of his body from any incoming attack.

Shin prayed that Domon wouldn't ask him to throw the first punch. Shin could tell, just from how Domon stood, that he had no chance of success.

"What do you feel?" Domon asked.

"It's like my stomach is burning," Shin said. He associated that feeling with danger and battle.

"That feeling is fear. You understand the difference between us," Domon said. "It is also determination. That's the beginning of real fighting spirit. Now, bring your right up up just to the side of your face. Make a fist. Draw the fire in your belly into that hand."

Shin did as he was told, quietly trying to imitate the steady grace of Domon's stance. He wasn't sure how he was to move a feeling from his stomach into some other body part, so he just thought about it very hard.

"Be still and listen," Domon said. "Listen to yourself. What do you hear?"

At first, Shin heard nothing. His forearm trembled as he remained in position for long minutes, waiting. His raised fist began to feel warm and sweaty. He heard a sound like a match igniting, the sound of a small flame dimly illuminating a vast darkness.

Shin groped for the words. "It's like... like-" His concentration crumbled as doubt flooded his mind. He felt stupid and self-conscious. The sound of the campfire fled from his mind. "- Dammit!"

Domon nodded. "You have many barriers to surpass. You still need to develop your self-control. This is normal. Now, release the frustration in your fist. Come at me, Shin Asuka!"

Shin did not hesitate to throw a bunch at Domon and vent the terrible frustration that had built up in him. He was off-balance from the zero-gravity, as only his magnetic boots held his feet to the floor. He could move most of the time as if it was normal, but once he tried to fight, his body seemed to scream that nothing about this was normal at all.

Domon moved as if he fought in zero gravity all the time. Domon caught Shin's incoming fist and yanked him upward, hard enough to break his boots' magnetic hold on the metal floor. Shin yelped as he floated helplessly in the air for a moment. His boots slowly dragged him back down to the ground.

Shin felt a deep shock of embarrassment when he landed, a feeling that blossomed into rage. He flew at Domon in earnest this time, fists flying. What he lacked in strength he made up in speed. Domon blocked every blow easily, but he saw potential there. He wanted to push Shin farther.

"So this is the power of your anger? This pitiful attack is the rage of Shin Asuka?" Domon taunted.

Something like a snarl rumbled in Shin's throat. He redoubled his efforts, trying to hit harder and faster. Though his technique grew sloppier and more transparent by the minute, he was tapping hidden depths.

Domon let it go on long enough for Shin to expend all of his energy. Domon ended the battle decisively by seizing Shin's arm and kicking out at the young man's stomach. The impact broke the grip of Shin's magnetic boots again.

Shin floated a few feet back before his feet were pulled back down to the floor. His body sagged as he landed, gasping for air. In gravity, he would probably be on his hands and knees.

Domon stepped forward and looked down at Shin, arms crossed. "I could feel an anger in you that would fill this entire space..." Domon glanced at the high ceiling of the vast hangar bay. "... and yet, it was not enough."

Shin exhaled and looked up. "I... I know. It never is. You don't win just because you're mad."

"Then why do you feel such rage, Shin Asuka?"

Shin's eyes unfocused as he thought this question over very seriously. His mind was utterly blank. He expected to see a vision of the day his family died or a flashback to his fight with Michelo, but instead, he saw nothing at all.

Shin was dumbfounded. "I... I don't know. I really don't."

Domon nodded. "I once thought my anger would be enough... that all the answers I wanted were just beyond my fist, if I could only swing it hard enough. Then I fought a man who could look upon all of my rage and laugh at it."

"What happened?" Shin asked.

Domon smiled. "I lost, of course."

"Seriously? There's a guy you can't beat?"

"My shishou, the last Gundam Fight champion."

Shin spoke without thinking. "He sounds awesome."

Domon laughed. "He is. Even now, he is."

"So... are you still mad at him?"

"Yes. At him, at... everything. When I met you, Shin, I knew the look in your eyes all too well. I saw a rage that would burn the world if left unchecked. That power may bring victory, but only without glory."

"Well... glory's not really important, is it?" Shin asked. "Combat's about achieving your objectives-"

"No!" Domon said. "That is wrong. If you wish to become something like Gundam Fighter, you must understand that is absolutely wrong. Glory is the only thing a man may win in battle that matters. All men will one day wither and die, but a Gundam Fighter's glory in battle is immortal."

Shin was totally speechless for a moment. This was entirely the opposite of the theory of combat taught at ZAFT Academy. Those lessons were eminently practical, designed to help a soldier find his place in the vast impersonal machine of modern warfare. Domon spoke as if the fight was an end in itself, rather than a brutal means to a man's ends.

"So... what makes a battle glorious?" Shin asked.

"When a man fights with dignity, honor, and sincerity, then it matters not whether he wins or loses. That man has won glory everlasting," Domon said. "Glory does not come to any man easily, but least of all to a man like you. Learn to forget everything you were taught as a soldier and only then can you become more like a Gundam Fighter."

Shin smiled. "Forgetting that other stuff will be easier if I have something to replace it with..."

"Hmph!" Domon had to catch himself to keep from laughing.

Domon had one last thing to teach Shin before he'd consider the lesson over. It involved shouting a lot of incomprehensible words whose mystery struck Shin as magical. Shin messed it up several times before he got it right. When he did, he felt somehow transformed.

"Touhoufuhai is?" Domon shouted, extending a clenched fist.

"The winds of the king!" Shin shouted back, bringing his knuckles to Domon's.

"Zenshin!"

"Keiretsu!"

"Tenpakyouran!"

The men shouted together to finish the outlandish chant. "Look! The East is burning red!"

The hangar rang with the sound of their voices. The two men held identical poses and for a moment, Shin thought he could feel something burning inside him again.

The sound of enthusiastic applause suddenly made Shin feel acutely self-conscious. Apparently someone had been watching them from one of the catwalks.

"I don't know what was, guys, but it was completely amazing!" Shiro drifted down to them from above, a small tablet computer in one hand.

Shin was too mortified to say anything, but Domon merely squared his shoulders and drew up to his full height. "The oath of Touhoufuhai is not a show put on for your amusement, Shiro Amada."

Shiro was immediately conciliatory. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop! It's just that I promised to do a final hangar check for Amuro. I didn't really expect anyone to be down here, let alone you guys."

Domon frowned. "Why not?"

"Well, you guys are gonna sortie, right? You two really shouldn't be up. There's only a couple shifts left for you to sleep and maybe get a hot meal in before we've gotta start combat prep."

Domon didn't take kindly to being advised, especially by people who were insufferably right. "The King of Hearts can see to himself."

Shin felt more conciliatory. "Trust me, I'm gonna go pass out after this. Do you want any help with the hangar stuff?"

Shiro laughed. "Nah... honestly, it's just busywork. I said I'd do it so Amuro wouldn't have any more excuses for not sleeping. Is this a thing with you Gundam War guys? Every pilot I know back home just wants to eat, sleep, and party right before we deploy. Not necessarily in that order, either."

"I think Amuro's just like that," Shin said with a shrug. "People yelled at him to stop working and sleep back at Von Braun all the time. I thought it was maybe a Newtype thing."

Shiro tapped his chin. "Huh. Maybe it is. I never knew a Newtype before this. I kinda didn't think they were real."

"Really? I figured they were like coordinators..." Shin realized he'd have to clarify that for Shiro, who just barely understood Cosmic Era jargon at all. "... you know, they mostly lived off in space together, with maybe a handful of them in neutral colonies or on Earth or whatever."

"I don't think there's supposed to be all that many... I heard Zeon believes some weird stuff about Newtypes, but I've never met a Zeke that seemed to care much about it either way," Shiro said. "I guess this kind of thing is just over my head."

Domon interrupted the conversation. "Shin, we'll speak again later." He had already turned to leave and was well on his way to one of the bottom-level hangar exits.

"Hah. Guess we were boring him." Shiro grinned, not at all offended by the thought. "I should probably get to counting crates, though. G'night!" Shiro began heading for one of the pull-lines that lead to the upper catwalks.

"Good night," Shin said. He wondered for a moment how two worlds as fundamentally similar as the Cosmic Era and the Universal Century could produce such utterly different kinds of people. He'd never met a soldier from ZAFT, Orb, or the Alliance who had anything like Shiro Amada's joie de vivre. Shin suspected it meant there was something deeply wrong with the Cosmic Era, though he didn't know exactly what.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Roughly 95% of this chapter was written within one day of posting the last chapter. All the time between then and now just came down to polishes and tweaks and getting that last 5% right. It's always that last 5% that takes forever.

So I read up a bit on how martial arts would work in zero gravity as part of writing the chapter. As far as I know tell everything that happens here is within the realm of plausibility.

I listened to a lot of Nana Mizuki while I wrote this chapter. Not exactly traditional Gundam music, but she does have a lot of surprisingly heroic ballads and generally heartfelt stuff. Maybe that's the connection.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	46. Chapter 46

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Izumo plays its hand as the battle begins!

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Bright light poured upward from the Earth itself, reflecting onto the Granshirio and its chosen battlefield from below. The Mobile Suits that gathered off its starboard side in a neatly-spaced horizontal line were similarly illuminated, their legs dangling in bright relief while their eyes glowed from deep shadow.

Treize watched his defensive line from the Granshirio's hangar, where a great bank of monitors bathed his face in cool blue light. He wore his normal suit, a helmet by his side and his Tallgeese II readied for quick deployment if something went terribly wrong.

The Granshirio's pilots ran the spectrum of human emotion. Michelo quietly yearned for battle, his blood-red Neros Gundam's arms crossed. Cima was alert and wary, her agile Gerbera Tetra's betraying her nervousness with tiny flicks of its many verniers. The Qubeley's mono-eye swiveled to focus on the Izumo's approaching form, driven by Haman Karn's dark resentment.

The shadowy Gaia and the bright Gundam X Divider were not near each other in the line. Kira's lavish blue Freedom was between them. Though the Freedom bristled with weapons, its pilot felt no certainty. Kira Yamato had carefully kept his promise not to betray Garrod, even after Allelujah made it clear that Garrod was under suspicion and should be watched closely. Kira had volunteered to do much of the watching, hoping to find some way to keep his foolhardy friends alive.

Al's vivid white-and-orange Kyrios stood guard at the far end of the line, in its Mobile Suit mode. There was something cold and forbidding about the unit, the space around it slowly filling with glimmering motes of light. Garrod had a hard time thinking of Kyrios as anything but an evil Airmaster, just as Epyon put him in mind of a Satanic Ashtaron.

Heero's crimson Epyon was near the center of the line, at Haman Karn's side. It was silent and perfectly motionless, mirroring the stillness of its pilot's heart. Garrod had a hard time keeping any sort of visual lock on it. It was annoying. He couldn't make a move until he was sure Heero was otherwise occupied. A

Haman's voice crackled across the encrypted comms frequency the Treize faction machines were using. "The Izumo's deploying units. If you recognize anything unfamiliar, be sure to speak up."

The first unit out of the sleek black ship was clearly the Shining Gundam. Only two units followed it, flanking the Shining Gundam in a formation that put Shining at the head of a triangle.

"Stellar knows the one in front, but the others are new," she said.

"One of them is a Marasai," Haman said. "That's a Federation unit."

"Reinforcements?" Michael asked.

"Or they've been scrounging."

"Does anyone recognize the other unit? The blue-and-white one?" Cima asked.

The line was silent. Garrod felt certain that the blue-and-white one was a real Airmaster, but felt no desire to share the information. He didn't recognize the colors and couldn't know the pilot, anyway.

Al spoke up. "I couldn't tell you when or where the blue-and-white Mobile Suit is from, but it's a variable geometry unit, I can promise you that. I can pinpoint the transformation chassis from here."

"That's something to go on, at least," Cima said.

Shining Gundam and its two wingmates moved to a point precisely halfway between the Izumo and the Granshirio's positions. The machines slowed, then stopped, then began quietly waiting.

"Surely they've got more units than that..." Haman said. "Colonel Khushrenada, are you seeing this?"

"Yes. Prepare yourselves for an ambush," Treize said. "Heero, move Epyon into position and initiate combat."

Treize switched frequencies, hailing the Izumo over an unencrypted channel. He didn't recognize the face of the man who answered the call. He was dark-haired and sharp-featured, his eyes impertinent.

"Oh, hey. Colonel Treize, right?" Shiro looked up from the game of solitaire he was playing on his computer tablet. "Is there a problem?"

"... who are you?" Treize asked.

"Oh! Sorry about that. Lieutenant Shiro Amada. You, uh, you guys have probably never heard of me."

A burst of chatter erupted on the Granshirio force's encrypted comms channel. None of them had heard of this Amada person before. Suspicions that he might be some sort of lost Federation super-ace immediately arose. Treize ignored them.

"Lieutenant Amada, I take it you are operating the Izumo during our confrontation?" Treize asked.

"That's right!"

"Am I right in presuming that the Izumo has more than three Mobile Suits to deploy?"

Shiro paused before he answered, as if thinking the matter over. "Hmm... yeah, that's true."

"... do you have any intention of fielding them?"

"Yeah, okay. So, I don't know how they wage wars where you're from? I mean, maybe you don't have wars, I wouldn't know. But when we're fighting, and your guys are trying kill my guys-" Shiro gestured to himself and the screen briefly. "- I'm not supposed to just tell you about that stuff. I mean, it's like asking me to show you my hand if we're playing poker, you know? I mean, if you have poker. I guess I wouldn't know that, either."

Treize came close to sputtering. He would have never in a thousand years tolerated such an attitude in a soldier. He couldn't imagine the army that would. "If the Izumo fields nothing else of consequence, I will have no choice but to order a general attack upon the Shining Gundam's wingmen."

Shiro shrugged. "Well, it's your call. I mean, I wouldn't, but what do I know?"

Treize couldn't resist his own curiosity. He wondered if the Izumo had acquired some sort of tactical specialist from an exotic new timeline. "What would you do, Lieutenant Amada?"

"Panic."

Treize was still trying to unravel that cryptically earnest response when a female voice drifted into his ears from the Granshirio's encrypted channel.

"Treize! Colonel Treize!" Cima was screaming. "The Dogos Gear is heading for us at ramming speed!"

-X-X-X-

The timing of the ambush was perfect, from a certain point of view. Heero could hear his allies chattering furiously as their instruments picked up the Dogos Gear. He had his orders, though, and had no interest in disobeying them. His mission was the Mobile Suit that awaited before him, the Shining Gundam. The Dogos Gear would wait.

"Epyon System, Combat Mode." Dormant computers lit to life. Heero braced himself for the impeding surge of information that would cloud his helmet's HUD. "King of Hearts... show me the future."

Shining Gundam ignited a beam saber in its right hand in answer. Though it moved with the same maestro's grace, Epyon could understand and predict it now. "GUNDAM FIGHT!" Domon roared, his voice a tide of confident. "READY... GO!"

-X-X-X-

Gato and Witz were scanning the enemy line as Shining Gundam and Epyon initiated their battle with feints and thrusts. Neither man had the stomach to look upon the terrible spectacle that was unfolding before them. Instead, they were using their machine's sensors to look for information, particularly about any unfamiliar units that could complicate the Dogos Gear's ramming attack.

It was a task that left Gato feeling useless. "Damn. I can't recognize any of these new suits... what about you, Mister Witz?"

"Nope. Just record an' patch it over to the other team, I guess. One of 'em turns into a jet, one of 'em's a big wad of guns, and... wait, wait. Is that..." Witz was, for a moment, unsure of himself. He couldn't believe his luck was either good (or possibly bad) enough for this to be real.

"What is it?" Gato asked.

"Is that a... ah, hell, it is, that's a Gundam X!"

"What? Treize has control of a Satellite Cannon?"

"No, no... that's why I didn't recognize it at first! It's got the Divider parts equipped!" Excitement rose in Witz's voice. He knew that the Gundam X wasn't a unique unit, but he'd only ever seen one with Divider parts. "Gato, I might know this guy!"

"Hail him! We can't afford to turn away a potential defector."

Airmaster Burst immediately hailed the Gundam X Divider over the Izumo faction's encrypted channel. The response lifted Witz's spirits like nothing had in weeks.

"- Witz! Witz, what the hell did you do Airmaster!" The smile on Garrod's face belied his complaint.

"Garrod!" Witz's face lit up with joy. "It's just a paintbox an' spare parts, kid, you still oughta know another Vulture when you see one!"

"Witz, you just- you can't believe the crap I've been through! everybody over here is crazy! Me and Stellar want out of here, like, yesterday! You know Stellar, right?"

"We were hoping she could return to us safely." Gato felt slightly bad interrupting the call, but he wanted to make sure the Gundam X's obviously-young pilot wasn't about to do something foolish. "You're welcome to join the Izumo, young man, but your situation is dangerous. If you move too quickly you and Stellar both will be shot to pieces before we can help you."

"Garrod, this is Gato, he's smart as hell when it comes to this stuff," Witz said, offering a hasty introduction. "Listen to him and he'll get you out of there."

"Hey! I listen to people sometimes!"

"Mister... Garrod, please transmit your machine's identification signal over to my Marasai. I'll patch it over to the Dogos Gear team. Move with Treize's forces until they've engaged with the Dogos Gear's defenders. They'll recognize you and Gaia as friendlies, but once it's obvious they do, be ready to defend yourself. You'll be in danger from your current comrades."

"These guys already want to kill me, at least this way I'll get a chance to fire back. Stellar, do you copy on all that?"

Gaia's response was swift. "Stellar copies. Stellar is ready to come home now!"

"Garrod, me an' Gato will try to throw in to help you guys out when we can, but we gotta watch Shining Gundam's back for now. Hang in there, kid!"

"You think I'm gonna get killed as soon as I find you? I'd never hear the end of it!" Garrod laughed. "Gundam X out!"

"I hope Mister Garrod is a reliable pilot," Gato asked, once Gundam X and Gaia had closed the channel.

"He's pretty good," Witz said. "I dunno about reliable, exactly..."

Gato said nothing. He feared that Garrod and Stellar might be going to the Dogos Gear team's aid in their places. Shining Gundam was not faring well. Gato knew that his Marasai and Witz's Airmaster Burst would be little more than speed bumps if they were forced to try and stop a victorious Epyon.

-X-X-X-

Epyon and Shining Gundam spent a long minute testing each other, verniers blazing. Shining Gundam's marvelous agility was just the same, but Epyon was obviously moving more smoothly and with more confidence. Domon knew immediately that he was facing an even more dangerous opponent than he had last time.

It was time to fight in earnest. The Mobile Suits surged forward, thrusters roaring silently into the dead of space. Epyon loosed its Heat Rod, the electrified metal lash slicing through the vacuum. Shining Gundam danced away in a rocket blaze, its beam saber's blade shearing a good half-meter from the Heat Rod's tip.

Epyon was ready for Domon this time. Heero's mind cleaved through the possibilities offered by the Epyon System, seizing on the most probable future. Though the tip of the Head Rod bled sparks, the weapon had lost none of its terrible efficacy. Epyon was still closing to close melee range, swinging the weapon again. At the same time, Epyon's beam saber flashed to life, swinging upward at the elbow Shining Gundam's right arm.

Shining Gundam tried to quickly reverse-flare its thrusters to back away from Epyon, but forward inertia was difficult to cancel in space. The now-shorter tip of the Heat Rod sank into Shining Gundam's neck. Epyon's beam saber sheared through Shining Gundam's right arm in a cascade of livid green fire. Domon's Mobile Trace System lit up with biofeedback agony.

The Heat Rod wound about Shining Gundam's neck, expending the last of its momentum. Now its high-energy electrical discharge was focused at a single point. Epyon reeled Shining Gundam in slowly, not wanting to decapitate it just yet. Although these tactics would have been insane against the conventional Mobile Suits of the After Colony era, the Epyon System now understood how to cripple a Mobile Fighter with sheer pain.

Treize had harvested basic data about the operations of the Mobile Trace System from Neros along with its combat records of Shining Gundam. The biofeedback capabilities that made Mobile Fighters such efficient transmitters for a pilot's qi also, necessarily, meant the pilot needed the primal impulse of pain to understand intuitively how a suit was damaged.

To the Epyon System, especially in the hands of a man like Heero Yuy, this was a weakness to be exploited. Though Domon was not himself injured, he was feeling the agony of a severed limb and direct electroshock. Epyon's leg verniers flared, moving its knee upward to bash Shining Gundam's faceplate as it pulled the enemy machine down with the Heat Rod.

Shining Gundam's body moved loosely, like a struggling human. A crack ran through the Gundam's mouthplate, its V-shaped forehead antenna snapping off completely. Domon as as staggered as if he had taken such a blow to his own head. Blood flowed from a nose that was not broken, but felt like it was.

Epyon held Shining Gundam helpless and prone before it. The machine raised its beam saber and held it poised over the small of Shining Gundam's back, where the Epyon System knew the Core Lander held the Mobile Fighter's cockpit. In that moment, for Heero Yuy, nothing existed on the battlefield but himself and his prey.

The surging tide of potentiality the Epyon System fed him began to collapse, all potential futures narrowing around the impending event of Domon Kasshu's death. The futures the Epyon System showed were ordinarily lines of blood etched in darkness, paths a man could cleave through the violence of war to victory.

Heero knew that killing the King of Hearts would be different, especially after the way Treize had upgraded the Epyon System. Now the lines of blood began to collapse into a corridor of light, a true future that required only the death of Domon Kasshu to become reality.

What Heero saw overwhelmed him, the breath catching in his throat. "The future... the future is..."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

This chapter was written to an extraordinary amount of Muv-Luv music. I'd explain what Muv-Luv is but frankly I'm not sure if I can. It's a cool Gundammy sort of datesim game, I guess.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
- IZUMO White Faction  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Heero Yuy / Epyon  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster


	47. Chapter 47

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Granshirio defends itself against the Dogos Gear's desperate ramming attack.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X

Domon Kasshu did not see his life flash before his eyes. Instead, it was a tangle of sensations. He could remember the gentle sound of his father's voice and the taste of his mother's gyudon. Domon felt himself, a small child, carried on the shoulders of a brother who he adored.

The thought of his brother soured immediately into the sound of laughter, unending and mindless. There was so much Domon would never be able set right. The life that stretched out behind him, from the day of his mother's death to now, felt like a grim march toward assured failure.

This kind of self-judgment is perhaps the most exquisite agony a man can know prior to death. Domon expected his feelings to be swallowed up by oblivion, but the Epyon's pilot hesitated perhaps a moment too long.

The idea that he was too insignificant to even be taken seriously as Epyon's foe ignited a terrible rage in Domon. The face of discipline that held back his emotions erupted. A spasm of hatred and frustration shook Domon to his core. Shining Gundam had but one programmed response to such violent emotions.

Light began to radiate from the Mobile Fighter's body. Shining Gundam's remaining hand burned green. It closed on the heat rod wound about the Mobile Fighter's neck, tearing it away in a violent motion. Shining Gundam's reactor outputting at such tremendous capacity that the heat rod melted evaporated between its shining fingers.

Shining Gundam's was surrounded by a red-gold aura so intense that it would've blinded a pilot forced to rely on traditional optic sensors. Plates on Shining Gundam's body began to shift in place, revealing extra verniers and energy vents. The Gundam's mouthpiece opened, revealing red under-armor that made Shining look somehow enraged.

Shining Gundam took its remaining beam saber into its remaining hand. Its ignition sent a geyser of raw energy gushing upward. The blade was enormous, very much like Epyon's super-sized beam saber. Shining Gundam raised its energy blade above its head as Domon emitted a guttural cry of fury that tore across his open com-link.

"I'll show you the future, Epyon!" Domon howled.

Epyon ignited its own titanic beam saber, its pilot curiously silent. The System was moving a little more slowly now that Shining Gundam had exceeded the parameters of Neros Gundam's battle data, but the change wasn't enough to lock up or crash the Epyon System after Treize's reprogramming.

The great beam sabers clashed. The energy eruption caused by the repulsion between two high-intensity magnetic fields connecting threw both machines forcefully backwards. Domon seemed numb to pain now that he was lost in the long-suppressed depths of his rage. Shining Gundam recovered first, verniers burning blue as it rushed toward Epyon again.

Shining Gundam juked in with meteoric speed, swinging its blade in a wide horizontal slash. Epyon flared its thrusters, trying to move back while using Epyon's shield-buckler arm to guard. Shining Gundam's great beam saber sliced cleanly through Epyon's forearm, severing it.

Epyon countered with a wide horizontal sweep of its own, now that Shining Gundam had closed to an unsafe distance. Had the blow connected, it would have torn through Shining's cockpit block. In Super Mode, Shining Gundam was able to escape by parrying with its great beam saber blade. The contact unleashes another burst of energy, throwing the two mobile weapons back again.

It was clear to the fight's stunned observers that the two mobile weapons were playing a horrible game of Russian Roulette with their gargantuan beam sabers. The first machine to take a dead-on blow would have to be destroyed. The fury that transformed his Mobile Fighter seemed to hold Domon in a murderous grip, while Epyon was no less brutally methodical than before.

The two machines were evenly-matched, their blades so powerful that they could not be clashed without unleashing horrific energies that battered at both machines. Domon was taking the worst of it, as Shining was more lightly armored than Epyon. Parts of Shining Gundam's outer armor appeared to be melting as much as glowing. If the swordfight became a battle of attrition, Epyon with its superior armor would surely win.

The factor that divided the two machines was Domon's rage. Epyon was fighting with machine-like precision, but each of Domon's missed blows and desperate parries drove his anger to new heights. As he grew angrier, Shining Gundam began to output more and more energy into its massive beam saber. It began to move faster where it should have slowed. Domon and his Gundam were becoming one entity, driven completely by id.

-X-X-X-

Epyon could not evolve itself. It was not supposed to have any need for such change. It was supposed to be perfect from the start. Reduced to but a single weapon to use against a small, obstinate target, its moves became repetitive. It dove at Shining Gundam with its blade extended over its head, chopping powerfully downward, one too many times.

Domon saw his opening. The game of Russian Roulette was over. "These hands of mine glow with an awesome power!" he shouted.

Epyon was not intimidated by this display. It brought its beam saber up for a thrusting attack, rapidly extending the size of the blade. Shining Gundam twisted nimbly aside, juking just outside of the deadly cone of heat that surrounded Epyon's livid green sword.

"It cries out to defeat you!" he continued. He swung his beam saber upwards with the smooth, perfect grace of an iaijutsu master's sword-stroke. The arm that held Epyon's great beam saber was severed completely at the shoulder.

"Take this! My passion, my anger, and all of my sorrow!" Shining Gundam began to rocket forward. Its great beam saber was poised to strike, well within reach of Epyon's cockpit block.

"SHIIIIINING FIIINGER SWORD!"

For a terrible moment, it was hard to tell where that immolating beam saber was targeted. Had a maddened King of Hearts rammed his Shining Finger Sword through Epyon's cockpit block, he might have been forgiven, though Domon would not have forgiven himself. It is hard to say if Domon's red rage ever entertained the notion of taking his opponent's life.

What is a matter of fact, recorded by the Marasai and Airmaster Burst, is that Domon instead upheld the laws of the Gundam Fight Treaty even in the depths of apparent insanity. Domon screamed as he drove his Shining Finger Sword merely through Epyon's head, immolating it completely.

It was no more than a symbolic gesture. The Epyon System had shut down when it lost its sword-arm, stripping it of all its weapons. It hadn't worked at optimum capacity since Heero had begun to see the true vision of the future that Treize promised him.

Although Shining Gundam's reversal of fortunes was dramatic, it was not the most important event that happened in the battle that day. Heero Yuy fought a battle no less dramatic or important purely within the depths of the Epyon System itself. This battle marked the first true turning point of the Gundam War.

-X-X-X-

Heero Yuy had no companion more constant than death itself. He took no pride in his ability to murder but could sometimes enjoy it with a cold, savage joy. Death was an ally, if one that was treacherous and inconstant. It was this supreme mistrust of himself and his own perfectly controlled nature that gave him the mental strength required to command the Epyon System.

Epyon could produce apocalyptic visions that would drive lesser men mad, but it had never produced anything Heero found worse than the terrible things that lurked in his own tortured memory. That changed the second he raised Epyon's beam saber above Shining Gundam's cockpit. What Heero saw taught him that he was still capable of feeling horror.

Heero saw a future where he still piloted Epyon in combat around Earth orbit. Battle raged around him, but the scale of the conflict had increased beyond his comprehension. In any direction Epyon's sensors could perceive, up to its maximum range, mobile weapons were locked in combat. Beam fire lit space so brightly that he could not perceive the stars.

The countless suits that battled around him were unrecognizable. He saw the Gundams of a thousand timelines, far humbler mass-production suits, and legless things that seemed like little more than weapons platforms.

The battle had raged for a long time. Around the Earth there was a thick layer of chaff and debris, formed from the wreckage of thousands of mobile weapons. The sea of scrap metal was so thick it blotted out much of the Earth below him. When the sea of jetsam parted, Heero saw a planet whose surface was no longer blue. Its oceans were poisoned and its land masses choked with gleaming metal. Earth now cast a red light into the burning void around it.

This vision came with the implicit understanding that Earth was now incapable of sustaining life. Heero also understood that the planet he regarded was the Beyonder's Earth, the same planet he fought above now, at some point in the future he had begun to create. If he killed Shining Gundam's pilot, it would trigger a chain of events that resulted in the Beyonder's Earth becoming an infinite battlefield.

Treize had not programmed Epyon with direct knowledge of the Beyonder. In order to absorb the combat data from Michelo Chariot's Neros Gundam, however, the Epyon System found itself forced to extrapolate the existence of such a being. Once it understood the idea of the Beyonder, the Epyon System could only predict the scale of the Gundam War increasing infinitely. There was no logical need for it to end when the Beyonder could always produce more reinforcements for both sides. Victory would be logically impossible until the Beyonder could summon no more pilots.

At the Gundam War's end Epyon could foresee only a universe emptied of all possible combatants. So the future that Heero Yuy beheld was the mobile armies of all creation tearing each other apart, fighting until the Beyonder's Earth was too choked with bodies to hold them all.

The wholesale murder of worlds was more mindless bloodshed than Heero could accept. His hatred of the very idea lit a small, cold flame of defiance in him. Even if somehow this carnage was the future that Treize had wanted him to see, Heero Yuy was not enough of a monster to accept it as the logical end of his actions. He would not follow Treize if the man's desires could lead to such vast and brutal slaughter.

A primal scream of rejection flooded Heero's mind. He wasn't sure if he was really screaming anything or simply forming thoughts of denial so forceful that they shattered Epyon's connection to his mind.

To Heero, it now seemed that his true mission was perfectly clear: to stop the Beyonder's Gundam War, by any means necessary. That would mean stopping Treize. The man's love of combat for its own sake could only lead him to embrace the Beyonder's future of infinite war.

"Izumo forces!" Heero shouted over the open comms frequency. "I surrender!"

-X-X-X-

In real-time, Heero's declaration of surrender came just as Shining Gundam pulled away from Epyon's wreckage.

For a moment that was no response to Heero's announcement. Gato and Witz were completely stunned by what they'd seen.

Domon was breathing heavily, reaching the limits of his endurance. Smoke wafted from Shining Gundam's overheated joints. Heero's voice cut through the fog of his rage. Domon felt a sense of relief at it.

Epyon's chest-mounted cockpit hatch burst open. Heero was unstrapped, floating out of his cockpit chair, but still tethered to the machine by the wires and cables that connected his normal suit's heavy helmet to the Epyon System.

"He's serious!" Witz was incredulous. "He's really gonna surrender, after all that..."

Heero began physically tearing himself free with his left hand. His right held a thin cylinder with a trigger mounted at the end- the ignition for Epyon's self-destruct system.

The Marasai's sensors emitted a quiet, persistent beep as they picked up Heero's life signs. The sound brought Gato back to reality. "- we accept your surrender, Epyon's pilot, but-"

Gato never had time to finish his statement. Heero had already jammed his finger down on the self-destruct trigger. The force of the explosion tore the final cable tethering him to Epyon apart. Heero's body flew forward, a dark silhouette against an explosion so hot and intense that it could all but consume even the Epyon's densely armored body in an instant.

Gato waited for Heero's body to slow before he caught the pilot as gently as he could in the Marasai's hands.

"Mister Kasshu?" Gato asked.

Domon's breathing had slowed. Shining Gundam had exited Super Mode, its generator's output cooling and its armor moving back into its standard position. Some plates grated and screeched, melted somewhat out of alignment. The massive energy sword had faded away to nothing. "I can keep fighting-"

"Negative," Gato said. "Your suit is clearly at its limit. You'll return to the Izumo and keep an eye on the prisoner."

Domon said nothing, but his quiet was assent. He knew that he lacked he energy to argue, let alone to fight.

"Gato, if you've got things here I'm gonna go reinforce the Dogos Gear team," Witz said.

"Please do. I'll follow once Mister Kasshu and our prisoner are safely aboard the Izumo."

-X-X-X-

Treize quietly observed the entire battle between Shining Gundam and Epyon, letting Haman deal with the incoming Dogos Gear as she saw fit. Treize felt no fear at sitting on a battleship targeted by a ramming maneuver. He was a rational man and knew he had plenty of time to evacuate.

He also knew his carefully-planned duel between Epyon and Shining Gundam had ended in the most counter-productive way possible. If Heero Yuy of all men couldn't appreciate what the Epyon showed him... well, Treize had to wonder if he'd overestimated Yuy from the beginning. Perhaps he really was nothing more than an assassin.

Treize suppressed Heero's declaration of surrender, so that the forces battling the Dogos Gear wouldn't take a morale hit from the loss of Epyon. The Epyon's destruction bothered Treize little, as he'd rather have it in pieces than in his enemies' hands. Treize quietly decided that he would execute Heero for desertion after the battle was over and he was victorious.

Despite the setback, Treize was still confident that he would be victorious. Shining Gundam didn't appear to be in any condition to reinforce the Izumo forces at the Dogos Gear, effectively neutralizing the King of Hearts as a meaningful combatant. Treize's side still had a greater number of higher-quality units on the field. Even better, his pilots had their backs against the metaphorical wall of Earth's gravity, which could inspire triumphant acts of bravery.

The Granshirio was too big to be moved effectively out of the Dogos Gear's way and, remarkably, Treize wouldn't have dreamed of firing the Granshirio's main cannon after making an agreement not to do so. Treize decided that, for now, it would be best to leave the ship unmanned for a time.

Treize opened a channel through the comms arrays at his fingertips. "Commander Karn, how are you faring? Have you engaged the Dogos Gear's defense forces yet?"

"Not yet," Haman responded. "How's Epyon doing?"

"It seems Epyon shall be unavailable for longer than I anticipated. I'm going to deploy to reinforce you instead."

"You?" Haman said. "Wouldn't it be better to initiate evasive maneuvers?"

"It would be a futile effort. If I deploy, I can help clear the way for your forces to seize and destroy the Dogos Gear."

"Very well. Godspeed, Colonel."

Treize calmly rose from his seat, picked up his normal suit's helmet, and strode over to his waiting Tallgeese II. Sometimes a man's only choice was to lead by example.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

I may have taken a few liberties with the way Epyon works, but Wing always gave me the impression there was room for interpretation there.

This chapter was finished after many revisions to JAM Project's Victoria Cross album. I recommend it highly.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS  
Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom  
Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)  
Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)  
Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst  
Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom  
Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam  
Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex  
Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)  
Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball  
Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame  
Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam  
Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity  
Loran Cehack  
Garma Zabi  
White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction  
Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II  
Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam  
Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra  
Stellar Loussier / Gaia  
Haman Karn / Qubeley  
Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios  
Kira Yamato / Freedom  
Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED  
Paptimus Scirocco / Messala  
Shagia Frost / Virsago  
Olba Frost / Ashtaron  
Clotho Buer / Raider  
Flay Allster  
Epyon


	48. Chapter 48

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: With Epyon destroyed, the Dogos Gear's defenders push forward.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X

The Dogos Gear slowly descending upon the Granshirio, its massive thrusters blazing fire into the indifferent void. A mere three Mobile Suits appeared to be guarding the Dogos Gear's suicide plunge, each tethered to one of the Dogos Gear's enormous launch ramps: the NT-1, the jury-rigged Strike Red, and Johnny Ridden's Gelgoog. In a certain sense, all three Mobile Suits were merely decoys.

Rondo's Gold Frame and Amuro's Turn-A were tethered at the end of the launch ramps, both machines and even their tether cables completely invisible. Though the Granshirio forces no doubt had some plan in mind for Gold Frame, Turn-A's stealth and other abilities would hopefully be a complete surprise to them.

Johnny opened up his comms frequency. "The Granshiro's forces are on the move. Gato, can you give us any visual data or unit ID?"

"I'm sending the visuals through now. We could only identify one of the new Granshirio units, but the pilot has agreed to defect to our side. I'm sending over his unit's identification signal, too. He'll be escorting Miss Loussier's Gaia."

"Stellar's okay?" Shin asked.

"Affirmative," Gato said.

"What do we know about this pilot who's defecting?" Rondo asked.

"The defector's name is Garrod Ran... Witz vouches for him. He's one of the Vultures and he seems to be piloting a modified Gundam X."

"A Gundam X!" her voice lit up with excitement.

"It doesn't have a Satellite Cannon," Gato added.

She was too disappointed to reply.

It was heartening enough for the others. "Tell Witz we'll back him up as best we can," Christina said.

"Is the Gundam X's pilot a Newtype?" Amuro asked.

"I don't think so..." Gato sounded a little started by the question. "Witz didn't mention it, at least."

"Huh..." Amuro furrowed his brows, his expression distracted.

"Amuro? What is it?" Rondo asked.

"There's another Newtype in the Granshirio's forces. Besides Haman Karn, I mean."

"Should we be worried?" Johnny asked.

"I couldn't say."

A flurry of cursing from Shin interrupted the chatter. He'd already begun going over Gato's visual data, since it was a trivial task for Strike Red's quantum operating system.

Christina winced. "For pity's sake, Shin, is this necessary-?"

"Yes! Yes, it's necessary! That son of a bitch put Freedom on a team that already had Epyon!"

"The Freedom?" Rondo was incredulous. She booted up the data as quickly as she could. Her cursing was not quite so florid or impassioned as Shin's, but what she saw was infuriating. "- that bastard! It is the Freedom! I bet it's even Kira Yamato piloting the thing!"

"Please explain," Johnny's voice was urgent.

Shin hesitated for a moment. "Freedom's the most powerful Mobile Suit in the world."

The other pilots went silent. From the perspective of the Universal Century, Cosmic Era suits seemed like invulnerable weapons platforms. The thought of facing the Cosmic Era's most powerful MS was bone-chilling.

"Shin's not exaggerating. Freedom is heavily armed and uses a modified nuclear reactor for its power supply."

"So it can't run out of power?" Amuro asked.

"It could... it's just not terribly likely," Rondo said.

"What about the pilot you mentioned?" Christina asked.

"I haven't met him," Rondo said. "My intelligence suggests a treacherous and opportunistic sort. Despite rather close ties to House Athha, he's fought for virtually every military in my world. He just seems to follow whichever power is willing to give him the best machines."

"- Athha?" Shin was stunned.

"Yes, Athha," Rondo sneered. "That family has a way of persistently betraying Orb, doesn't it?"

"We'll deal with it when the time comes," Johnny said. "How are things going with the Epyon, Gato?"

"Better than I dared hope. Shining prevailed. The Epyon is destroyed and the pilot has surrendered. I'm taking him back to the Izumo now."

This news counteracted Freedom's dismal effect on morale. "Very good. Will you and Witz be returning to back us up? What about Domon?" Johnny asked.

"Witz is en route. I intend to follow after I've seen to things here. Shining Gundam is in no condition to deploy and I have ordered Mister Kasshu to remain on the Izumo for the rest of the operation."

"Understood. We've only a little time left, Gato, so I'm going to cut transmission."

"Best of luck, Commander." Gato signed off.

-X-X-X-

The Granshirio's forces rushed toward the Dogos Gear's descending bulk with all possible speed. Haman anticipated an attack when they reached the edge of Gold Frame's energy-draining field and had warned her troops to expect as much.

Urgency split the Granshirio forces out of formation. The swiftest machine by far was Freedom, which could reach speeds a normal human pilot simply couldn't tolerate. Michelo Chariot's Neros Gundam wasn't far behind, its specs lower but Michelo's body similarly superhuman.

Kyrios trailed slightly behind this first group in MA mode. Although the machine was equipped with dampeners that protected its pilot from G-forces, Al's largely human body still limited the upper range of Kyrios's maneuverability.

The rest of the machines moved forward in a tighter group, with Cima's Gerbera Tetra taking point. Haman Karn's Qubeley and Stellar's Gaia were next. In truth, Stellar probably could have caught up to Kyrios and the Gerbera Tetra at least, but she didn't want to get too far ahead of Garrod. Gundam X brought up the rear.

Garrod was fine with that. He was beginning to think it might make officially defecting to the Dogos Gear defenders a little easier. The Granshirio forces would be excellent targets for the Divider's Beam Harmonica if they fanned out in front of him. Ordinarily he'd feel bad about shooting people in the back, but Garrod knew a lot of the people nominally on his side had it coming.

The Dogos Gear defenders watched their instruments closely as the Granshirio forces drew closer... closer... but not yet into ideal striking range. Rondo cursed as she saw one of the units begin to outstrip the others nearby. "Damn! That's probably the Freedom!"

"That's him!" Amuro said. "That's the Newtype!"

"- what, the Freedom's pilot?" Shin said. "That's impossible! We don't have any Newtypes!"

Rondo considered the matter. Her intelligence had long since uncovered the story of Ulen Hibiki's bleeding edge genetic experiments and evidence of the irreparably damaged but identifiable artificial womb the man had built for the sole purpose of turning his son, Kira Yamato, into a flawless Ultimate Coordinator.

Rondo had only ever cared about the bizarre tale of Kira Yamato because of the slim possibility that the information might one day give her an advantage against House Athha. Now she realized that she may have stumbled onto something of far vaster importance.

Why did the Universal Century have Newtypes, when the Cosmic Era's Earthsphere was no less thickly settled? If there was anything to the theory that Newtypism resulted from living in space, then why hadn't anyone in the far-distant PLANTs developed such an ability?

Her initial assumption had been that it was a fundamental difference between her timeline and Amuro's, perhaps even a difference in the genetic make-up of UC and CE humans. Now it occurred to her that there could be a very different explanation.

The vast majority of the human beings who lived in space in the Cosmic Era were ordinary coordinators. There were known flaws in the conventional coordination process, most notably the one that doomed second-generation coordinators to sterility. What if there was a flaw in the coordination process that also destroyed the gene sequences associated with Newtypism? Was it not possible that Ulen Hibiki found a way to remove that flaw?

She grimaced. "No... no, we can't say it's impossible. Not if the pilot really is Kira Yamato."

"Let me engage the Freedom first," Amuro said. His voice was uncharacteristically urgent. "Please. If he can't be swayed I can deal with him, but if he can then I need to get to him as soon as I can."

There was a point in time where Shin would've viciously complained about any such plan. Freedom was a Mobile Suit that still haunted his recurring nightmares about his family's death on Orb. For the Shin of the Gundam War, though, that anger felt somehow distant and less urgent now. It seemed easier to look at the situation objectively.

"If we've got anything that can take Freedom, it's Turn-A," Shin said.

"Captain, I can't approve of you running off alone. If you go forward to meet Freedom, we're coming after you as back-up," Johnny said.

"What about the plan?" Christina asked.

"The plan's obsolete," Johnny said, "but we still need to act as a unit. Our enemy is capable of using ordnance we can't anticipate. If Turn-A goes forward alone it's vulnerable to being flanked and overwhelmed. We'll close those routes off and force the Freedom into a head-on duel."

"Perfect. Just sitting and waiting like this isn't my style at all," Rondo said.

One by one, the Dogos Gear's defenders broke free of their tether lines and began moving forward. Amuro in Turn-A invisibly took point while the others fell into a diamond-shaped formation behind him. Slowly, they began to inch ahead of the enormous ship descending behind them.

-X-X-X-

Kira Yamato experienced a deep sense of dread as Freedom hurtled through the vast starfield toward the Dogos Gear, which grew ever-larger in the distance. It wasn't simple fear or uncertainty, but somehow deeper.

He'd felt this way only a few times before, but the incident that he remembered most vividly was just before he'd faced the Providence and its terrible pilot. Paranoia clasped Kira's heart like a cold claw at even the memory of it.

"A-Al, what are your sensor readings?" Kira asked.

"Three units moving forward from the carrier. Why? Are yours different?" Al asked.

"No. I just- I think there's something else out there..."

"The Gold Frame, right?"

Kira considered that for a moment. It was a very plausible explanation for his fears of being watched... but no, it wasn't right. "No, I think... I think there's five of them!"

Freedom hefted its shield and raised its beam rifle. The HiMAT system engaged, Freedom's ten vernier-studded wings opening to full capacity.

"- a second invisible unit?" Al wouldn't have believed such a thing possible from anyone but Kira. He altered his course so he could flank

"I think the kid's right!" Michelo said. "There's some serious killing intent headed our way!"

Michelo barely finished speaking when suddenly there was a visible Mobile Suit before the Granshirio forces, materializing so abruptly that it appeared to have materialized from nothingness. Its shield was raised, a curious-looking beam rifle hefted in its other arm. The Turn-A was not by itself a fearsome sight, but its abrupt appearance at such close quarters was terrifying.

"Granshirio forces! This is your last chance to surrender!" Amuro announced over an open comms frequency.

Michelo cackled as he recognized the mustachioed MS and its grim little pilot. "Well, if it ain't you, soldier boy! Maybe you'll finally live up to your reputation out here!"

He'd hoped to goad Turn-A's pilot into taking a shot at him, but had no such luck. Amuro's focus was the Freedom. He could feel the pilot's intent to attack and was working ahead, running analysis checks on its weapon types.

Turn-A's sensor array was capable of delivering information even more detailed than a Cosmic Era suit's quantum OS, though it took Hachi's intervention to coax that information into a form Amuro could quickly understand. When the Freedom brought its five weapons to bear on Turn-A, Amuro had already worked out an appropriate defensive pattern.

Only the shots from Freedom's Xiphias railguns had even the slightest effect. One projectile was visibly deflected by Turn-A's solid shield, while the other simply missed. The three beam shots streaked toward Turn-A and then curved as if hitting an invisible sphere. The energy instead curved around Turn-A's body before bleeding harmlessly away into space.

Kira was speechless. Freedom's full weapons burst and HiMAT manevuering had flattened scores of enemy combatants at Jachin Due. He was dealing with a combination of unit and pilot that could trivially dismiss both. Precious few enemies so formidable had ever stood before him. The image of Providence swam in his mind again.

"An I-Field?" Haman exclaimed. She, too, was in shock.

"A what?" Al shouted.

"It's an anti-beam barrier!"

"But they're not this powerful..." Cima was rattled.

Turn-A leveled its beam rifle at Freedom. Even though Turn-A was farther from the MS than most pilots would consider ideal, Amuro knew his aim was perfect and Kira knew it, too. "If you're not going to surrender, Freedom," Amuro said, "I hope it's because you think Treize is worth your life!"

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

It's never made clear exactly what beams are in the Cosmic Era, but for the most part, beam weapons that aren't explicitly something else- like a positron beam or GN particles- tend to behave like Minovsky beams in Gundam. So I figure they'd interact as such with Turn-A's I-field.

I've always found it interesting that only the 00 suits explicitly have inertial dampeners to help human pilots tolerate high G forces, when MS as far back as Victory's have stated specs that let the machine generate G forces no human pilot could possibly survive.

Once again, most of this chapter was written in a day... and then it took forever to edit it into something resembling publishable shape. Music for a lot of this editing was the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 soundtrack. Yeah, I can't really explain it, either.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster

Epyon 


	49. Chapter 49

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Granshirio and Dogos Gear forces clash. Turn-A Gundam takes the field.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Time froze, crystalline, in the moment when Turn-A and Freedom regarded each other. Kira Yamato didn't think of himself as fearless, but the terror that gripped his heart now was unaccustomed. He was used to thinking of his suit as one of the highest-spec in the world, Lacus's special gift of strength to him. He had never faced a machine with Turn-A's rumored capabilities and only once before felt such a terrible pressure at the thought of facing its pilot.

Intuition told Amuro that he and Kira had no reason to fight, that they were men far more alike than different. Amuro's many bitter experiences in combat had also taught him too well how primal fear could drive a young man to do terrible things on a battlefield. Amuro couldn't afford to let down his guard, but to press Kira with an attack in this moment might transform him into an enemy forever.

At DOME, Amuro had performed a feat he had managed only twice before in his life. He had eased the iron wall around his heart and opened himself to another, permitting DOME to contact his mind directly. Amuro wondered if he could lower that wall again and show Kira that they need not be enemies. He knew a spoken explanation in circumstances like these would be useless.

"KIRA!"

It was Allelujah, his voice ripping through open comms frequencies. Kyrios in MA mode streaked in to flank Freedom, emptying its missile containers at the Turn-A. It was Al's last-ditch effort to save Kira from what appeared to be certain death at the hands of the enemy's monster ace.

Any hope of Newtype communication at that moment was dashed. Freedom juked away as Kira's self-preservation instincts kicked in. Amuro's mind raced along with Hachi and Turn-A's OS, analyzing the weapons so Amuro could settle on the best defensive option. Even for him, evading all fourteen of the solid-state projectiles was impossible.

Instead, he opened up Turn-A's chest-mounted particle cannon and set the bore wide. Dazzling golden energy ripped out into space, detonating each of the plasma-bearing missiles with an unfocused wave just strong enough to trigger the warheads. Kyrios spun away from the backwash of deadly radiation.

"Al!" Kira shouted.

"I'm fine! Focus-," Al grunted as he tried to wrest control of his machine back. "- focus on destroying Turn-A!"

Neros howled into the field, its red body a bloody comet as it passed the two younger pilots. "Stand back, kids, I got this!" Its flight took a curved path, Michelo clearly hoping to close into melee range while approaching Turn-A from its back and side.

Amuro knew he couldn't cut Michelo off with rifle fire in time. Possibilities flashed through his mind as he sorted through what he understood of Turn-A's offensive and defensive options. He saw an opening to evade. Turn-A swung its shield arm back, using it for cover as it juked downward. Michelo might land one attack with Neros, but not a second.

As Neros began to attack, Amuro realized that he'd wildly underestimated its power. Neros charged close enough to Turn-A to pass within the boundary of its I-Field, allowing the Mobile Fighter to ignite the massive array of beam emitters mounted on its left leg. Michelo snapped the limb forward like his own brutal axe-kick, moving at Gundam-size scale with the same knife-like speed Michelo had mastered himself.

"You think Neo-Japan's golden boy is so great? Then get a load of my Silver Legs!"

The beam attack that poured into Turn-A's shield was, for a moment, so potent that it cast a blinding multicolored light into the darkness of space. Physically, the kick didn't connect with the nimble Turn-A, but the arc of beam energy spewed forth from it was deadly at this kind of range. Turn-A sailed down and away from Neros, moving backwards, the front of its shield melted into a featureless slab of metal.

Amuro was not entirely sure what Turn-A's shield (or the rest of the MS) was made from. Even long months of study had failed to divulge the secrets of a metal that seemed much like gundarium, but somehow infinitely stronger, tougher, lighter. Whatever it was, Amuro was grateful to it for saving his life. Hachi's readouts indicated that a blast like that would do terrible things had it hit any part of Turn-A's main body. Even the shield probably wouldn't be able to safely absorb more punishment.

"See? There ain't nothing that can stand up to a Gundam Fighter! Get in close with me and we'll tear Mustache Gundam here apart!"

"Sir!" Al had brought Kyrios back under control. He jettisoned its tail module and begin its transformation into MS Mode, GN Shield in hand. "My GN hand-missiles can-"

"- there's more of them!" Kira began to speak as the set of blips appeared on his instrument.

If not for Kira's warning, the wave of cover fire laid down by Johnny Ridden's approaching team might have ended Michelo and Al's lives right then and there. Instead Neros was able to spiral away from the barrage of beams. Al stopped what could have been a suicidal charge forward short.

Rondo cackled with glee, Gold Frame uncloaking so she could more effectively taunt the Granshirio forces. "You send three MS to engage a single one of ours and fail? I'm not impressed, Haman!"

"Wow, it went just like you said it would," Chris said. "Are you sure you're not a Newtype, Commander?"

"I'll take experience over clairvoyance any day," Johnny replied. "Are you all right, Captain?"

"Fine for now," Amuro said. "Can you clear the way for me to re-engage Freedom?"

"I think so. Shin, take point. Drive forward until you reach Stellar and the defector," Johnny said.

Shin wasn't able to supply cover fire with Strike Red, as its overburdened IWSP pack couldn't accommodate a beam rifle. Shin was itching to enter the fray with the weapons he did have. "No problem. Gaia's on my instruments."

"Excellent. Lady Rondo, Lieutenant MacKenzie, we'll need to suppress Neros and the ..." Johnny paused. He had no idea what to call Kyrios. "... let's call it Evil Airmaster for now. We need to keep pressure off the Captain."

Turn-A holstered its beam rifle and unsheathed its beam sabers, preparing to surge back into the fray. After Michelo's successful blow, Amuro figured anyone attacking Turn-A would try to close to melee and get inside the I-Field's range. "Don't do anything foolish to keep me alive. Turn-A can handle itself!"

-X-X-X-

Shin had to temper his urge to fight with the practical need to keep Strike Red's battery operating as long as possible. It was hard to simply pass Neros by, but vengeance would have to wait.

Instead Shin switched to an unencrypted comms frequency. "Stellar!" The worry that shook his voice surprised him.

"- Shin? SHIN!" she exclaimed, not bothering to hide her enthusiasm.

Haman and Cima immediately knew they were in for trouble. "Loussier!" Haman barked. "Remember whose side you're on!"

The set-up was too beautifully perfect for Garrod. He switched on the Izumo faction's encrypted frequency. "It's time to join the good guys!"

Shin blinked in surprise. "Are you the new guy?"

"My name's Garrod, not new guy! Look, I'm transmitting firing coordinates, get all of your people out of the way!" The Divider X slowed to a stop, unslinging its massive shield.

Shin stared at the incoming coordinates and effect lines in disbelief. "- you're going to fire eighteen beam guns at once?"

"They call it the Divider for a reason!"

Stellar, meanwhile, decided she was ready to leave. "Stellar is on Shin's side!" She twisted Gaia around, hefting her rifle at the Qubeley and Gerbera Tetra, before spraying fire at both of them. Stellar didn't come close to hitting either unit, but she'd made her intentions clear enough.

"Dammit! Why am I not surprised?" Cima snarled, preparing to pursue.

"Don't!" Haman commanded. "Something's incoming!"

Garrod had already slung the Beam Harmonica forward to cover Stellar's escape. Suddenly a wedge made of beam fire divided the battlefield. Gaia dived beneath it to make her escape and safely join Strike Red.

Cima gaped at the wall of death she'd nearly barreled into. Haman was already furious. "I see there's a second traitor, too!"

"You're one to talk, lady!" Garrod jeered at her to help keep his nerves steady. This would be the most dangerous part of defecting. He was far-distant from Stellar and (he supposed) her boyfriend. If the Qubeley and the Gerbera Tetra double-teamed him, he probably didn't stand a chance.

Shin had already read the situation, though. Strike Red swung its Kerberos beam cannons and Deluge rail cannons into position and unleashed a heavy burst of fire at the two Zeon units. The attack chewed up more battery power than he would've liked, but it forced the Qubeley and Gerbera Tetra back long enough for the Divider X to catch up to Gaia and Strike Red.

"Stellar? Are you okay?" Shin asked, sensing a moment to breathe while the Granshirio forces regrouped. "Did they hurt you?"

"Stellar is fine. Garrod helped her! Is Shin okay?"

"I hate to be a squeaky third wheel, guys," Garrod said, "But can we all be okay when we're not surrounded by bad guys and a carrier's dropping on us?"

"Uh- y-yeah, right! Let's get back to Commander Ridden and the others," Shin said. "They'll need all the fire support they can get."

Cima switched on the Granshirio encrypted channel to speak with Haman, though it was only a matter of time until the renegades gave the enemy access to it and it became useless. "This has turned against us fast. Is there any hope? What should we do?"

Haman was frustrated. With Gold Frame on the field, her bits were useless and even these stupid children could defy her much too easily. It was hard to do what she knew to be best. "I underestimated the Dogos Gear's forces. We need to cut them off at the head. Then when reinforcements arrive, we'll be able to turn the tide."

Cima arched an eyebrow. "So you're not content to wait for the Epyon?"

"No... neither Epyon nor whatever Treize is using," Haman said. She could feel his MS moving through space, straight and true as a rapier's thrust. "We must force our enemy to overextend themselves... then our reinforcements can deliver the death blow."

-X-X-X-

The Izumo vanguard forces quickly regrouped. Michelo itched to see if he could score the kill on Turn-A, but he knew he'd already called out Rondo's Gold Frame as his prey. "On second thought, you kids handle Mustache Gundam. I've got a date with a stuck-up bitch!"

Al cursed as the Neros set out on its own. "Michelo- dammit! One of us has to take care of Turn-A's back-up, we can't gang up on it this way, and- DAMMIT!" Garrod's betrayal played out over their comms frequency. The Beam Harmonica's fire cast a wedge of brightness over them. "Of course he does this when we're already pinned down!"

"Garrod..." Kira sighed. The unsought courage that swept over Kira in his moments of doubt surged up in him. Everything for his side was falling apart and he had to stop it. "Al, I need to stop the Turn-A. We can't break through to the Dogos Gear until someone does."

Al was dubious. It was true that Freedom was probably better-equipped for a lengthy melee engagement than Kyrios. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure- look, it has beam sabers, I can duel it and at least keep it busy. Just go do what you have to so we can end this!"

"Understood. Watch your back, Kira, there's still more of them out there!" Kyrios arced away, on a heading for the NT-1 and Johnny's Gelgoog.

Gold Frame cloaked again, but she felt confident that Neros would be able to pursue her now. Stealth systems quickly lost their effectiveness out of ambush situations. "I expect you two will have a playmate from the Granshirio forces shortly. Prepare yourselves!" Rondo barked.

"Yeah, it looks like Evil Airmaster's heading our way," Christina said, dismay in her voice.

"You've just got to hold out until we get close in attack distance!" Shin broke in.

"We'll manage. Don't drop your guard!" Johnny said. "At the very least, Treize is still out there!"

-X-X-X-

Freedom drew its sabers and launched itself at the approaching Turn-A, the damaged Hi-MAT system still propelling it at speeds that pushed Amuro's precognition to its limits. The two MS clashed, sword to sword, a great wave of electromagnetic energy washing over them as their sabers locked.

Amuro broke off the saber-lock, juking backwards. He opened comms again. He needed to rattle his opponent's resolve if he was going to avoid a fight to the death here. "Talk to me now, Kira Yamato! Tell me, do you think Treize Khushrenada is worth your life?"

"This isn't about Treize!" Kira shouted. He surged forward on the attack, swinging his sabers in broad, confident strokes. His melee tactics were untrained and wild, but he had a deft sense for an opponent's potential weaknesses. Even though the sensation of his enemy's pressure rattled him, Kira pressed on.

Freedom attacked low against Turn-A, then feinted to make higher strikes against its fearsome chest cannon. Amuro decided that if he had been younger or in a mobile suit with less perfectly calibrated joints, Kira would be far too deadly for a gambit like this.

Amuro also made the disconcerting discovery that Kira didn't seem to understand how to guard himself, perhaps too used to relying on his superb offense and his Phase Shift armor. Kira attacked with abandon, giving Amuro a score of opportunities to make lethal counterattacks. Amuro could sense the desperation in his opponent.

Kira grew more frantic as surge after surge was deftly turned aside by the Turn-A's eerily thin beam sabers. He finally made a desperate surprise attack, raising the Xiphias rail cannons at point-blank range. Turn-A danced aside again, evading one shot and spinning a saber to avoid another, before countering with its chest-mounted missile rack.

The missiles exploded harmlessly against Freedom's Phase Shift armor, but Amuro hoped he'd made his point well enough. "Then why are you fighting me? You know I don't want to kill you- or I would have done it already! You've given me a hundred chances to do it already!"

Freedom's verniers pulsed as Kira tried to think of an attack that might get through Turn-A's fearsome defense. "You don't understand! My friends- I have to protect my friends! I don't have a choice!"

"Do you think you're the only man in the world who's ever wanted to protect his friends? You're the one who doesn't understand! You're not protecting anyone, you're just using them as an excuse to keep fighting!" This time Turn-A took the attack.

Kira was caught flat-footed by the sudden surge, barely parrying Turn-A's expert fencer's approach. "- no! That's not true! You don't understand-"

"Stop saying that! What can you understand about me? You don't even understand yourself- you're not even trying to stay alive!" Turn-A's beam sabers swept to the right and left powerfully.

"It doesn't matter if I die! I don't deserve to still be alive!" Kira blurted. His voice cracked with vehemence. Freedom was forced to take its parrying strikes wide, opening its chest to attack.

Turn-A lowered its right-hand saber at Freedom's cockpit block, making the potential killing stroke clear. "That's just self-pity! If you care about someone, share the burden of living together- don't make them grieve for you!"

Kira's heart was pounding."- I don't understand-" He felt light-headed, as if a great pressure was bearing down on him. Something about Amuro's words struck him deeply. Kira felt as if a pain that resembled his own lurked behind them. His will to fight buckled.

He began to see something that felt like a memory, yet was at the same time a new and raw experience. He was in a colony that was like Heliopolis and yet wasn't. Great machines that were GINNs and yet weren't rained death upon an unfamiliar place that felt like home. Kira felt himself get up and move toward a Mobile Suit on a flatbed truck.

He expected it to be Strike and the encounter with Ramias that proved so fateful for him, but that was not the case. He was alone. It was mere coincidence that the cockpit was open. His only guide to using the machine before him was a user's manual- a curiously old-fashioned one, printed on paper. There was no G.U.N.D.A.M. OS to work with, only an inscrutable array of levers, pedals, and buttons.

In the memory, Kira felt no fear or doubt, only a raw anger. He felt the confidence of another young man who was determined to master the labyrinthine controls of this strange new Mobile Suit. He had no choice; he had to protect his friends. Well, his friend. His only friend, who might have been more, if only he'd known how to appreciate her back then.

Kira knew what happened next, even as he knew this memory had never happened to him. He was merely experiencing it from the point-of-view of his opponent, who had begun to share it with him in a way Kira did not understand. Even the later emotions of regret and melancholy that an older Amuro attached to the memory were there.

Kira began to panic, Freedom frozen in place. "- I don't understand why you're doing this-"

"You only have to let yourself understand," Amuro lowered Turn-A's beam saber, a great sense of pity welling up in him.

In his agitation, Kira had begun to leak memories. He didn't know how to hold feelings or impressions back, since he'd never met another person who could properly receive them. Except for once... and the impression of that man was deeply arresting to Amuro. It was a man who was Char's reflection in a broken mirror, his mask concealing a deep and virulent ugliness. An impression of dark heat, like a black flame, crossed Amuro's mind.

Amuro was forced to see something of himself in this man, too, in his deep cynicism about human nature. In a world where Amuro had made the mistake of becoming the Federation's attack dog, he might have become this man. The terror of Kira's memories of Jachin Due piloted a machine that seemed a twisted parody of his nu Gundam. Amuro realized how inevitable it was that Kira feared him... and how terribly unlikely their understanding truly was.

One of the rarest Newtype phenomena, so rare as to be barely documented even in the Universal Century, concerns the profound mutual understanding that like-minded people can experience in an encounter. The stress and negative emotions engendered by the battlefield can pervert or sever these connections. Sadly, Newtypes all-too-rarely encountered each other elsewhere.

"We shouldn't be fighting..." Kira murmured. His voice began to grow stronger. "I don't know why I thought... I must have assumed..."

"We can start over. We haven't done anything regret-" Amuro stopped in mid-speech, at the flash of a terrible onrushing pressure. Kira felt it, too, but he seemed to find the sensation merely confusing.

*No! That's enough, Amuro Ray! I deny you!* The pressure was Haman, her mind cutting through the battlefield like a black knife. No further communication would be possible with her present.

Turn-A smoothly whirled into motion, weaving through a hail of machine cannon fire. It struck Freedom, though harmlessly.

"Sorry about that," Cima addressed Kira over the Granshirio's comms as the Gerbera Tetra approached from overhead. "But nothing you can't handle, right?"

"W-what are you doing?" Kira stammered. "We shouldn't- no, please stop!"

"He's confused you," Haman said tersely. "Assist or get out of the way."

The Qubeley barreled in after followed it, closely, the palm emitters forming sabers. Amuro could see their likely strategy- harrying him until Haman could get close to melee and, probably, harass him with whatever Newtype offenses she could muster. Turn-A would have to turn its back on Freedom to defend itself. Amuro hoped that Kira's resolve not to fight him wouldn't be easily shaken.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

This chapter was a difficult one and called for a few rewrites, in part so I could plan out the beats of the battle. I had to put it down for awhile and let life happen before I was entirely sure it felt right. Hopefully it is worth the wait.

Soundtrack for this chapter was largely Kenji Kawai's excellent score for Ultraman Zero the Movie. If you liked his work on the Gundam 00 soundtracks, you should really check it out.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo MinaCustom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster

Epyon


	50. Chapter 50

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Granshirio and Dogos Gear forces clash.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"Hey! Hey, he's waking up!"

Heero Yuy's eyes slowly opened. He'd drifted in and out of consciousness since being brought aboard the Izumo, but only now did he feel ready to move. His arms, drifting in the zero gravity, began to move properly.

"Dammit, of all the times..." Heero recognized that voice from the battle before. There was a metallic echo as Gato hurriedly crossed the Izumo's hangar.

Heero could see the man he presumed to be Domon Kasshu standing before him, without so much as a normal suit to protect him against the threat of decompression. A more sensibly dressed dark-haired man was with him, though he wasn't wearing his suit's helmet.

Gato's scowl was evident in his voice. "I had hoped to launch, but I suppose I'll be conducting you to the brig first, Epyon's pilot..."

"Heero Yuy." Though he knew two guns and the burning eyes of the King of Hearts were trained on him, Heero coolly removed his helmet so he could regard the others more openly. He could see that the others were startled by his sudden introduction. He repeated himself, just in case the greeting wasn't clear. "My name is Heero Yuy."

"Another Gundam Kid!" Shiro exclaimed. "I thought you seemed awfully short."

Gato grunted in displeasure; he was growing unsettled by the Beyonder's apparent fascination with child soldiers. "You are going to be conducted to the Izumo's brig, Mister Yuy. I hope you come along quietly."

"You're wasting your time." Heero tilted his head up, so he could look Gato in the eye. "If I had surrendered with intent to infiltrate and seize control of this ship, your brig wouldn't stop me. I have no such intent, so detaining me that way is pointless. I surrendered so I could help your forces stop Colonel Treize."

Gato found the flatness of Heero's voice deeply unnerving, especially when he spoke at such length. He looked like a boy, if an athletic one; his voice was more like a sonorous robot's. "It is preposterous to ask us to take that kind of risk during battle, Mister Yuy."

"I dunno. I think he's got a point, Gato."

"Lieutenant Amada! You can't be serious."

"I am! Really!" Shiro said. "I dunno, I like to think the Beyonder brought us all here for a reason, and as far as I can tell, the only thing I've really got to contribute is giving people the benefit of the doubt. I think he's telling the truth, Gato. If he didn't want to help us, why formally surrender at all?"

"You fought me at Treize's command, Heero Yuy. Why have you turned against him now?" Domon asked. Suspicion was deep in his voice.

"Don't mistake my intentions. Treize is a noble man... I saw no reason not to take his orders, once we were trapped here," Heero said. "But Epyon showed me that what Treize would accomplish by winning this battle is abhorrent."

Gato's brows knit. His voice was skeptical. "You're betraying the man because you… admire him?"

Heero nodded, his eyes sincere and cold. It seemed to Gato that a world that could spawn men like Heero and Treize must be a damnably confusing one.

"Epyon? Your Gundam was intelligent?" Shiro asked.

"No... the Epyon System can show its pilot the future outcome of actions taken in battle-"

"Oh! Your Gundam is a Newtype!"

Heero stared at Shiro, dumbfounded into silence. Gato grunted, annoyed enough to decide he'd wash his hands of the entire situation. He couldn't justify wasting more time on this when he badly needed to deploy.

"You've command of the ship, Lieutenant Amada, Yuy's fate is rightly yours to determine," Gato said. "I hope you don't come to regret your decision."

"Nah, I've got a pretty good feeling about this." Shiro said. "Anyway, c'mon, we need to get you launched, there's no telling what's going on out there..."

Domon remained by Heero's side, as he could contribute little to a launching procedure. "It is said in my world that some fighters, when they reach a master's level of skill, can see the truth of the world that lies beyond their fist. Is that what you meant when you said Epyon showed you Treize's intentions?"

Heero glanced up at him. "Close enough."

"What did you see?"

"An eternal battle. That's what Treize meant when he said he'd end conventional warfare forever. He wants to change mankind, so it exists only in an endless waltz of combat."

Domon was shocked. To him the world of men like Gato and Shiro already seemed one of perpetual warfare, so he could only imagine that Heero meant something on an infinitely greater scale. It was a bit beyond Domon's comprehension. "- what? Why? Why would any man want such a thing?"

"Treize believes people are strengthened through conflict... he believes it produces men like you."

"- stupid!" Domon's voice rose. "That's utterly stupid! What could a man like Treize admire in a Gundam Fighter? I am no soldier and in my world, war is a forgotten relic of the past!"

Heero looked up to regard Domon more evenly, in a long moment of silence that left the King of Hearts feeling unsettled. Heero did not seem phased by the thunder of Domon's voice.

His response was cold and cutting. "How could a world without war produce a weapon like you?"

Domon grunted in displeasure, clenching his fist and looking away. For once, Domon felt ashamed of his quick temper.

-X-X-X-

Space boiled with beam fire as the Izumo and Granshirio forces clashed against the backdrop of the Dogos Gear's inexorable plunge toward oblivion. Neros Gundam's massive crescent beam waves, launched from the machine's "Rainbow Legs," howled toward Gold Frame with an accuracy that left Rondo Mina shaken.

Her Mirage Colloid cloak seemed to keep Neros from knowing exactly where she was, but the Gundam Fighter was coming closer with every blow. It was a struggle for her to stay close enough to her allies to keep them within the range of Gold Frame's energy-draining Maga no Ikutachi.

The Gundam NT-1 and the Gelgoog HM found themselves rapidly overwhelmed by Gundam Kyrios, the machine the Izumo forces had nicknamed "Evil Airmaster." It was a problem of machine superiority quite unlike anything Johnny Ridden had ever experienced before. The orange Gundam could shrug off any attack Johnny could orchestrate with Christina, surviving hails of beam fire without so much as a scratch.

In fact, if the orange Gundam's pilot was more skillful, Johnny suspected he or at least Christina would already be dead. Right now they were being forced into defensive maneuvers by the orange machine's steady, methodical hails of what seemed to be beam fire. It was obvious what Kyrios was trying to do, eventually overwhelm and dispatch them. The usual counter to such a strategy was to close to melee, but Johnny could see only death at the end of such a maneuver.

"Commander Ridden, what do we do? This thing's got us on the ropes!" Christina shouted at him over the comms.

Johnny genuinely didn't know. He would lie to her, of course, even if that lie carried them both to their graves. That was part of a commander's responsibility on the field. At the moment, though, Johnny couldn't even think of a suitable lie.

Turn-A seemed to face three opponents at once in its corner of the battlefield, though the Freedom seemed to have fallen back from the battle for the moment. Now the Gerbera Tetra and Qubeley worked in tandem to hammer at the strange white Gundam, with only Amuro Ray's fantastic skill as a pilot and the Turn-A's curiously high specifications holding them at bay.

Haman pressed her advantage nakedly to melee while the Gerbera Tetra danced in circles around them, peppering Turn-A's back and sides with machine cannon fire. She'd scored some hits, the damage light but distracting. As Haman closed on the boundaries of Turn-A's I-Field, Amuro knew he could not afford to divide his attention.

This was the battlefield that three young Gundam pilots surveyed. Shin had carefully conducted Stellar's Gaia Gundam through its return, alongside fellow defector Garrod Ran and his Gundam X Divider.

"How are we going to handle this, guys? I see three problems and we've got three Gundams," Garrod said.

"I'm not sure we should split up..." Shin said. The idea of Stellar wading into combat on her own made him feel extremely uncomfortable, for reasons he couldn't quite articulate.

"I'm not either, but I don't see how we have a choice!" Garrod said. "Those guys fighting Kyrios don't have long... hell, I'd better get in there and see if I can distract Al."

"Stellar will talk to Kira!" Stellar announced. "Kira is nice and he will join us if Stellar asks him."

"- that really is Kira Yamato in there?" Shin did a poor job of trying not to sound angry, especially at the vague notion that Kira had spent time alone with Stellar.

"What, Kira's some kinda celebrity or something?" Garro asked. "… wait, what am I saying, of course he is! I bet he's a prince and his girlfriend's a pop star who builds robots out of magic!" He paused to roll his eyes. "Stellar, you might as well try, maybe you can get through to him."

Shin narrowed his eyes. A part of him wanted to go and protect Stellar from what he imagined to be a blue monster lurking at the perimeter of Turn-A's battle, and yet... there was another part of him that knew how selfish and pointless that would be.

He'd made a vow of vengeance and his sworn enemy awaited him at the far end of the battlefield, firing waves of death as he hunted an invisible foe. If anything, Stellar was in far less danger around the Freedom than the blood-red beast called Neros.

"Understood. I'm going to reinforce Rondo..." Shin said. "You two be careful out there."

Garrod shook his head. "I doubt careful guys end up in messes like this. G'luck!"

-X-X-X-

Michelo knew if he pressured Rondo long enough, she would make a mistake. Every pilot forced to interface with a machine through a console inevitably did. While attempting another hair's breadth dodge of Michelo's horrific Silver Legs beams, Gold Frame Amatu was just a fraction of a second too slow. The beam attack sheared through its black forearm, the wreckage becoming visible as it drifted into space.

That was all Neros Gundam's sensor arrays needed to extend Michelo's own finely-honed spatial senses into a firm target lock. Neros's next Silver Legs wave flew square at Gold Frame Amatu. Rondo evaded only by rapidly dropping altitude, plunging down dangerously close to the Dogos Gear as it passed beneath her.

"Dammit! Dammit, he has a lock now!" Rondo cursed in impotent fury. She'd have to fight Michelo head-on now. Gold Frame Amatu was one of her world's most magnificent machines, but by now she knew that Gundam Fighters were on a whole other level. If she died- and a loss here would mean certain death- the entire Izumo offensive would crumple.

She dropped Gold Frame's now-useless mirage colloid cloaking, so she could divert all of its available power to weapons and maneuvering. If she was to die at the hands of Michelo Chariot, she'd at least take the bastard with him. "Well done, Michelo Chariot! You're a worthier opponent than Gold Frame's ever known before!" she announced over open comms.

Gold Frame raised its remaining arm, the one salvaged from the long-since destroyed ZAFT unit called Blitz. The three penetrator darts launched at Neros, blurs of terrible speed in the dark of space. "But you will die here, you glorified boxer! You will learn the terrible consequences of challenging the finest bloodline of Orb!"

Michelo laughed at Rondo's show of bravado. He swung one foot as the penetrator darts neared him, his reflexes defying physics. Neros mimicked the move precisely. The penetrator darks were consumed in hellish burst of beam fire launched from Neros's leg-mounted satyricon beams. "Lady, do you think you're fighting the King of Hearts?"

"You're not fit to say that name, you monster!" A barrage of high-caliber beams and rails rained down on Neros from 11 o'clock. A Gundam Fighter with duller senses might've been caught flat-footed. Instead, the machine managed to juke back to safety. Michelo was genuinely surprised. "- you! You're still alive?"

The Kerberos cannons and Deluge railguns folded back into position on Strike Red's Impulse Weapons Striker Pack. A shot like that was worth it to save Rondo, but otherwise Shin would have to manage his suit's battery life with excruciating care. Strike Red's rear rockets flared as Shin pushed himself into melee, trying to capitalize on Michelo's surprise.

"Until you've paid for what you did to Flay... I'll never die, Michelo Chariot! Least of all fighting a thug like you!" The Flash Edge beam boomerangs extended automatically from their housing on the IWSP, sliding smoothly into Strike Red's hands. Shin flung them with perhaps greater accuracy than a quantum computer alone would've managed.

"- two-on-one! I like these odds much better!" Rondo cackled. "Come, Shin, let's show Michelo the meaning of righteous fury!" Gold Frame immediately ignited its wrist-mounted beam saber and began to charge. Shin's approach was clearly correct; Michelo truly wasn't prepared for them to charge to melee range with him.

"You punks! Do you know who you're dealing with? Do you really think you can mix it up with Neo-Italy's top bravo in your piece-of-shit Mobile Suits?" Michelo was now consumed by rage. The satyricon beams on its feet ignited, a pair of swift beam-coated axe kicks flinging the Flash Edges aside. The machine rolled with the momentum of its kicks, pulling its main body up and over Rondo's thrust from the rear.

"You're just a man, Michelo Chariot, and all men can die!" Rondo put the brakes on Gold Frame Amatu's forward rush, verniers flaring to begin moving her backwards. Michelo saw an opening to strike, if not with the full force of his Silver Legs. He turned his rolling dodge into a flip kick, bringing an beam-ignited foot up and down toward Gold Frame's massive backpack.

Shin could see the impact coming and knew he couldn't prevent it, only try to minimize the damage. A Defiant beam javelin slid from the IWSP into Strike Red's hand. Strike Red flared its rockets to its utmost, charging with the javelin braced before him like a spear. Neros was forced to twist at the last second of its attack to protect its chest-mounted cockpit.

The Defiant tore through Neros's upper-left shoulder, lodging itself there. At nearly the same instant, Michelo's ignited foot came down on Gold Frame Amatu's backpack, where the Maga no Ikutachi were mounted. Rondo screamed in agony, explosions clearly tearing through the rest of the suit's torso block. It was impossible for Shin to know how damaged Gold Frame was, even if Rondo was alive or dead.

"Hah! Stupid kid! On Neros, the arms are just for show!" Michelo cackled. While Gold Frame drifted away from it, Neros brought one of its beam-ignited feet around in a side-kicked aimed at Strike's mid-torso, where Michelo guessed the cockpit would be. "But let's see what your military crap-bot can do when it's disarmed!"

Shin was already bringing the other Defiant beam javelin into his free hand, the one his threatened left side. Retreat was pointless, as he had no time or room to get away. Instead he plunged the burning beam javeling directly at Neros's beam-ignited foot. Maybe it would help push back the blow, maybe Michelo would just kill him then and there. Shin had no choice but to risk his fate on this desperate move.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

2011 turned into a terribly busy year for me between the last chapter and now, but I hope to get some chapters out over the holiday break. I appreciate everyone's patience in waiting for updates!

For finishing off this chapter, I actually dug out some really old music- stuff by move, probably best-known for doing a lot of Initial D songs. Don't know if that reflects in this chapter or not.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster

Epyon


	51. Chapter 51

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The battle intensifies, with more than lives on the line. With new strength, the Granshirio forces put unbearable pressure on the Izumo's defensive line.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

A plasma-charged explosion forced Neros and Strike Red apart, Neros's satyricon beams ultimately destroying the Defiant javelin. Shin still escaped with far less damage to Strike Red than he might have anticipated, little more than some heat scoring on the joints. Not great, but he might live a few minutes longer.

Gold Frame drifted still in space, with no sounds coming from its pilot. Rondo might be dead, or simply playing dead to keep Michelo from finishing what he'd started. Shin knew he was obligated by duty to his comrades to keep Gold Frame operational as long as possible. He braced himself to soak up another charge from Neros Gundam, which hadn't taken any sort of permanent damage from the beam javelin's thrust.

"Not bad, kid. Not bad," Michelo said. Neros flexed its still-operable arm, a great show of preparing itself for its next attack. "But you're out of javelins now, and you an' me both know your big cleavers are too slow for a Fighter like mine." Michelo grinned wolfishly in his cockpit, the grin that was one of Flay Allster's last sights. "You're done for."

Strike Red's Firefly missile launchers swung into firing position. They were the best short-range non-melee option Shin had left. "Try me," Shin said, determined to at least take Michelo with him if the end had finally come.

"Missiles! Yeah, you go on and try that," Michelo sneered. "I'll use you to teach a lesson to all your little soldier boy friends." Neros's legs ignited again, brighter. It wouldn't be a standard attack, but the Silver Legs. It occurred to Shin that the missiles might not even so much as scratch Neros. The black terror of death swam before his eyes.

Then he saw Neros's stance go slack, Michelo letting out a guttural roar of pain. The leg that was about to attack him suddenly extinguished, hanging slack. There was a smoking hole in the middle of the great machine's calf. Beam fire! Shin knew the shot wasn't his, he didn't have anything small-bore enough for that. Sure enough, there was an allied unit on his sensors now.

"I've got a lesson for you, jackass! The guy with the most guns always wins!" Airmaster Burst was wheeling in from Michelo's six. Its beam cannons fired again, strafing Neros with fire as it prepared to transform into Mobile Suit mode.

"- a jet! A piece of trash jet-" The anger in Michelo's voice was white-hot. His ability to sense killing intent focused on human-shaped bodies. Something shaped like a mere machine had failed to trigger it at all.

Neros wasn't seriously damaged by the shot, but the Mobile Trace system was working against him. Right now he was experiencing pain as if a hole had been blown through his own leg. He couldn't fight until the feedback eased; it was all he could do to remain standing.

"Yeah, my piece of trash jet and my beam cannons!" Witz spat. As long as he had the drop on Neros, he knew he'd have the upper hand. Airmaster Burst was designed to have the kind of speed that kept a unit from needing to close to melee at all.

"- you got lucky, kid! Enjoy it, 'cause we ain't finished yet!" With that Neros dropped, twisted, its backpack jets sending it plunging toward the Dogos Gear. Michelo still had enough control to ignite his off-leg, which was undamaged it. He used it to smash a way into the descending battleship, disappearing into its depths.

"No you don't, you son of a bitch!" Witz cursed. "Sit still and lemme end you!" He had to fumble to get Airmaster Burst's Buster Rifle into position. Shin silently retracted the Firefly launchers and swung the Kerberos cannons into position, preparing to try and aid in a long-range sniping shot, but he simply wasn't fast enough.

"To hell with it! I'm going in after him!" Witz said. "We've finally got that bastard on the ropes and he ain't getting away now!"

"Don't!" Shin felt a wave of relief. It was Rondo Mina's voice. "It's a trap. A long-range machine won't have room to maneuver in an enclosed space."

"- Rondo! Ah, hell, I know you're right, but-" Witz's voice dissolved into a wordless grunt of annoyance.

"Maybe I should go in after him. He's just going to come back once the Mobile Trace feedback stops..." Shin began.

"You're as much a long-range unit as Airmaster Burst is now. No, it'd be a waste of resources. Let Michelo come back. It won't matter if you can turn the tide while he's gone." Rondo's voice was firm.

"You're talkin' sense," Witz sighed. He'd have to teach Michelo Chariot about the superiority of guns another day. "Okay, I'm gonna go reinforce Johnny's team."

"Rondo? What about you?" Shin asked.

"I'm afraid Gold Frame is out of this fight," Rondo said. She grimaced over visual comms. "My maneuvering thrusters are shot and one of the Maga no Ikutachi is damaged. I'm going to keep it online as long as I can, but once it fails I won't have enough range to suppress the Qubeley's bits from this position. In short, if we're going to win this without casualties, we need to move fast. We could have as little as five or ten minutes left before the bits are in play."

"If you're busted up that bad, maybe somebody oughta stay and keep an eye on you," Witz said.

"And make me a sitting duck? I think not. My mirage colloid will be good enough, and once cloaked I can try to keep an eye out for whenever Neros resurfaces."

"Your mirage colloid wasn't good enough to handle Michelo the first time," Shin said.

"That's because he was looking for me. When he decides to stop hiding in the Dogos Gear, I imagine he's going to be looking for you or Witz. That's another fine reason for you to get as far away from me as you can," she smirked.

Shin grunted, but it wasn't worth arguing the point with Rondo any further. "Fine. Witz, thanks for the save. I'm going to go reinforce Stellar."

"Best of luck, man!"

"Before I go... how did you think to try hamstringing him with a beam shot? That's a crazy shot to make from that distance."

"Eheh... to be honest, I was aimin' for the cockpit. But like you said, it's a crazy distance..."

-X-X-X-

Allelujah Haptism preferred to fight his opponents in a rational, methodical fashion, leveraging Kyrios's heavy ranged loadout to eliminate foes before they could draw within range to become a threat. These tactics had rarely, if ever, failed him before. Yet, this fight against the agile Gelgoog HM and Gundam NT-1 had driven him to an unknown brink of frustration.

Al knew he had a clear machine advantage over the more primitive, more lightly armored Mobile Suits. He knew he'd only need to connect one, maybe two shots to eliminate his targets. Yet, try as he might, he could not get those shots to connect. His foes danced and whirled with an agility that seemed impossible for such rickety old machines, peppering Kyrios with beam fire as they went. If their weapons had any ability to damage Kyrios, that might've mattered.

Instead, they were just making Al angry. Al didn't like being angry, instead priding himself on his ability to keep a cool head. Still, he had to admit to himself, this was more the sort of battle that would've suited Setsuna's swift and merciless melee skills, or been resolved by one of Lockon's flawless shots from cover far out of visual range. This wasn't the sort of fight Kyrios was designed for, and far from his personal strengths as a pilot.

"Fine, have it your way... I'll leave my comfort zone..." Al muttered under his breath. He slowed to let Kyrios shift from its fighter form to its MS form. With uncertainty born of long disuse, Kyrios's hands went for its beam sabers. The blades flared a pale red-violet, bright as supernovas against the darkness of space and the churning blackness of the Dogos Gear as it passed beneath them.

A shock of adrenaline flooded Johnny's body. There'd be no more buying time by exploiting the pilot's rigid and mechanical style. Johnny knew the "Evil Airmaster" he battled was much swifter than his own Gelgoog, even the High Mobility type. Once that thing chose to close to melee, everything was over. He and Christina would be dead in very short order.

"Commander Ridden, I think it's going to rush us! What's the plan?" Christina asked over comms.

"... there isn't one. Get out of here, Christina, I'll try to slow it down," Johnny's response was flat and even, almost businesslike.

"What- no! I'm not leaving you!"

"If you don't, then you're going to die with me!"

The Gelgoog HM braced itself for "Evil Airmaster's" charge, a charge that was mercifully brought up short. A youthful voice cried, "Back up, guys, I got this!" over the comms before a wall of erupted upwards, creating a flat plane of plasma-based death that divided Kyrios from its prey. Al brought his machine up short, not quite confident enough to try and bull his way through eighteen beams.

"Garrod!" Al spat, his frustration boiling over into an uncomfortable anger.

"C'mon, Al, we both know who you're really pissed off at!" Garrod shouted back over open comms. The Gundam X Divider hovered at Kyrios's six o' clock, where Al and Garrod both knew it would serve largely to draw Kyrios away from the Izumo units.

"The new unit..." Christina sounded relieved.

"Is your machine any sort of match for this thing?" Johnny asked.

"What, for Kyrios? Beats me, but nothing's beat the Gundam X yet!" Garrod responded cheerfully.

Johnny found that he did not feel relieved in the slightest.

"You traitor!" Al said, thoroughly distracted. "First you abandon us, and now you're shooting at me? Heero was right about you!"

"And Kira was wrong about you! He actually thought you were a decent guy, but it looks to me like you're just a thug!"

Kyrios flew down at the X Divider, beam sabers in hand and wordless fury in Al's voice. Its beam sabers slashed down in a pair of deadly arcs at the Gundam's torso. The X moved to defend itself not with the massive Divider shield, but instead with the blade of a single beam saber, an energy blade that was twice the side of Kyrios's. Held at just the right angle, it could parry both of Kyrios's flying blades.

"Can you tell me I'm wrong, Al? Can you?" Garrod shouted.

"Garrod, you- you child-" Kyrios juked back from the X Divider, as Al realized he'd been tricked into giving up his advantage. He quietly cursed himself. Garrod might be a child, but Al had underestimated him all the same.

"He's an irritating little bastard, but he's ours!" Another new voice broke through on comms. Beam fire was raking Kyrios's back, high-caliber enough to scorch the machine's surface. In jet mode, Airmaster Burst soared through space, cutting like a knife above Kyrios and the X Divider.

"More reinforcements-" Al couldn't believe this. Was the battle actually turning against him? How many units did the Izumo have?

Witz scowled at his instruments, which indicated that Kyrios was very much still in one piece and operational. "What the-? Come on, that was a dead-on hit!"

"Be careful, Mister Witz! The evil Airmast- that is, the Kyrios is extremely high-spec machine!" Johnny said.

"Yeah, you ain't kiddin'!" Witz grumbled. Kyrios raised its arms and fired off the sole ranged weapon it had left in Mobile Suit mode, its arm-mounted racks of missiles. Airmaster weaved gracefully through the explosions, but it was a rough ride and not one Witz would want to repeat.

Undeterred, Aimaster Burst wheeled around to make a second run at Kyrios. "But there's no such thing as armor without a breaking point!" Witz shouted. "If we dogpile it, that thing's going down!"

The breath hissed between Al's teeth. Most of his ranged weapons became unavailable in Mobile Suit mode. He'd be vulnerable if he tried to transform back into fighter mode to dogfight the Izumo's Airmaster, yet if he didn't, then he'd have to find out the hard way if Kyrios could shrug off attacks from four machines at one. He raised his sabers and prepared to face his future bravely.

The Izumo, it seemed, had no monopoly on miracles that day. As Airmaster began peppering Kyrios with beam fire, Christina's voice broke through the comms silence, saying fateful words. "There's a new unit approaching! -from the Granshirio!"

Al's heart skipped a beat. There was only pilot who could possibly be available to relieve him- "Colonel Treize!"

A white-and-blue Mobile Suit streaked toward them at dizzying speeds, a round buckler shield mounted on one arm and a blazing beam saber with an elegant, tapering energy blade in the other.

"Treize?" Garrod exclaimed. "No way-"

"I got this! You keep lousy Airmaster busy!" Witz changed courses, wheeling easily into a trajectory that angled Airmaster Burst toward Treize's incoming Mobile Suit. A Mobile Suit moving at those kinds of speeds lost maneuverability. Unless it was armored crazily like Kyrios, Witz felt confident he could put it down just by opening up with his beam cannons.

Johnny and Christina put down a wall of cover fire immediately, with the practiced ease of true teammates. The fire itself was no threat to Kyrios, but the X Divider that lay just beyond with its beam harmonica struck Al as a more serious threat. Just the thought that Treize was on the field raised Al's flagging fighting spirit.  
Kyrios juked upwards, abruptly, sailing into the wall of beam fire.

Treize in his blue-and-white machine- which only he knew the proper name of, the Tallgeese II- showed no fear of Witz's barrage of beam fire. The machine instead lifting its shield in the manner of the ancient Greek hoplites, the men whose raiment had inspired Tallgeese's form and raiment. "A direct assault? A truly honorable, forthright way of fighting..." Treize began.

The waves of beam fire that poured form from Airmaster Burst bled harmlessly off of Tallgeese II's anti-beam shield, just as the phalanxes of old could turn a rain of arrows into little more than broken sticks. The Tallgeese II showed no signs of slowing or stopping, instead raising its beam saber proudly.

"What the..." Witz's eyes widened. Was he fighting a madman, or... some sort of crazy new super-machine? Whatever it was, Witz suddenly wanted no part of battling it. He tried to bring Airmaster Burst up, so he could slide up and over the charging Tallgeese II.

"... it's a pity your machine will let you down, brave soldier." Treize's eulogy was the last thing Witz ever heard. Airmaster Burst couldn't pull up fast enough. Tallgeese II charged into it, saber forward. The great energy blade divided Airmaster Burst through the nose, immolating the machine's cockpit and the Vulture inside of it with terrifying speed. Airmaster Burst flew on, thrown forward by energy, as Tallgeese II neatly cleaved what remained of its body with but a single sword stroke.

"WITZ!" Garrod screamed. The X Divider locked up, consumed by the pilot's grief. Al saw his chance, cruel though he knew it might seem.

Kyrios juked upwards with its own terrible speed, sailing toward the Gelgoog HM through its own beam fire. The armor warped and buckled under the sheer thickness of the shots, but Kyrios's power was too great to be overwhelmed. One blade sheared through the Gelgoog HM's huge yet useless shield, while the other sheared through the barrel of its beam rifle. "Dammit, no-!" Johnny began.

The third blow that would've surely speared the Gelgoog's cockpit didn't come. Johnny heard a female voice screaming. In the silence of space, the Gelgoog's external cameras impassively showed him the NT-1 ramming itself forcibly into the Kyrios, the Alex pouring its thrusters into a rocket-propelled shoulder block. The blow did no damage to the Kyrios, while it tore a sheet of armor plating off of one of the NT-1's shoulders.

Kyrios's pilot whirled to spear the white Gundam instead with one of its terrible beam sabers, but Johnny would not let Christina's kindness be repaid so cruelly. With practiced ease, Johnny had the Gelgoog HM's double beam saber in his machine's hands. He swung it upwards in a defensive arc, smashing the thrust intended to piece the NT-1's cockpit aside. "- no, you won't have the Crimson Lightning so easily!"

"And the likes of you can't best a Gundam Meister!" Al roared back. The double beam saber parried one, two of his sword-slashes- but not the third, which slammed through the middle of the staff-like weapon and consumed a few of the Gelgoog's fingers instantly. The weapon's remains exploded in what was left of the Gelgoog's hands, pouring blinding wind light through the external cameras that weren't disabled by the explosion's force.

Johnny lost all sense of where and how his machine was moving in the three-dimensional void of space... if his machine still moved at all. He had no sense of it. He'd heard this sense of vertigo described to him before by old Zeke vets as one of the preludes to death in Mobile Suit combat. An inexpressible sense of loss and regret wrapped around Johnny's heart, dragging him down into darkness.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Finished up some work, now let's see how long I can devote attention to this story. Music for this chapter was almost entirely the Gundam 00 soundtracks.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Flay Allster

Epyon


	52. Chapter 52

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The remaining defenders make a final stand against Treize and the Tallgeese II.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"You son of a bitch! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Garrod's voice cracked with grief and fury as he braced the Divider's beam harmonica for firing.

He never would've thought himself capable of firing such a devastating weapon on another person with murderous intent before, but he had just seen a friend- a real friend, a fellow Vulture- cut down by a man who had, not long ago, commanded his loyalty. Garrod was as angry at himself as much as Treize Khushrenada. That anger was an indescribable pain, as if his heart and breastbone burned from within.

Instead, Treize coolly maneuvered the Tallgeese II, bracing its round anti-beam shield to deflect the Divider's incoming salvo. "I thought I saw something of the noble rogue in you, Garrod Ran... but I fear Allelujah was right. You are a child, playing with toys you neither understand nor deserve."

"Don't lecture me, you murderer!" Garrod shouted.

"Murder? You belittle your friend's fate. He died in a duel of honor. Only his choice of weapons was regrettable."

Garrod's rage dissolved into an animal howl of pain. The Divider's beam harmonica flared silently to life, the eighteen beams setting space alight with boiling plasma. Tallgeese II shouldered its anti-beam shield and leaned into the barrage. Even in the face of the overwhelming salvo of the beam harmonica, the anti-beam shield held firm. Deflected beams formed a glowing halo around Tallgeese II.

Its verniers and rear thrusters flared as it began to charge forward. Garrod ignited the X Divider's own thrusters, but it was a mechanical, futile effort. Airmaster Burst hadn't been able to outmatch the Tallgeese II's raw speed and maneuverability, so the slower Gundam X Divider simply had no chance. Tallgeese II's beam saber cleaved through the Divider's great shield before the Gundam X had moved so much as a meter.

"No, no-!" Garrod cried.

Treize continued his lecture. "But I shouldn't expect you to understand. As Allelujah said, you are a child, and you have proven yourself singularly unworthy of meeting a man's fate on the battlefield."

The follow-up blow that Garrod feared would end his life never came. Instead the Tallgeese II spun a graceful half-pirouette through the void of space, winding around the Gundam X and coming to face its back. It sheared off the machine's thrusters with ruthless efficiency.

Garrod struggled to wheel his machine around, the mechanical hand that grasped its oversized beam saber trying to sweep back to land a blow. Treize simply severed the machine's arm at the elbow for its troubles. Garrod let out a cry and went for Gundam X's second saber, but the tip of Tallgeese II's own energy blade slashed through his forearm before he could even grasp the hilt.

In a final act of blind, helpless defiance, Garrod used the pitiful thrust his maneuvering verniers could generate to jerk Gundam X's head forward, opening fire with the head vulcans. As the shells bounced uselessly off of Tallgeese II's armor, the imperious machine swept its arm forward and sliced off the Gundam's head.

"You are now immobile and will have no further impact on this battle. I would suggest you remain here and ponder the traitor's fate that awaits you."

Garrod could offer Treize no retort this time, unable to compose himself enough to speak. The grief of knowing he couldn't even avenge Witz was too much, and tears of bitter frustration had begun to pour down his face.

Treize turned his attention to the skirmish that continued nearby. The Gelgoog HM's crimson body was drifting downwards, as if to meet the Dogos Gear that would soon begin to pass beneath their position. It was hard to tell if the machine's pilot lived, but in any case, the machine was so disabled that it was of no further consequence.

That left the Kyrios, which was reeling from a sudden assault by the Gundam NT-1. It was clear that the Kyrios had just cleaved the machine's beam rifle in twain, a move that the Gundam NT-1 had countered by jamming one of its arm-mounted 90mm gatling guns into Kyrios's faceplate and opening fire. The shells did no damage, but the smoke and flashes were clearly disorienting to Kyrios's pilot.

Treize's heart warmed at the sight of such noble, if hopeless, resistance. "Allelujah," he spoke over the open comms, "I shall finish things here. Kira is hard-pressed by the enemy and needs your support."

Kyrios juked back and away from the NT-1, extinguishing its beam sabers. Allelujah was tired of fighting these stubborn soldiers, and the thought of supporting Kira was appealing. "Are you sure, Colonel? I could-"

"I am certain."

Allelujah paused. Kyrios's external sensors briefly focused on the sad spectacle of the Gundam X floating in space, maimed and half-wrecked. To think Treize had been able to turn the tide so quickly... Al resolved that he would reinforce Kira with the same brutal efficacy.

"Sir!" Al said in farewell. Kyrios slowed momentarily as it returned to its fighter form, then began to streak across the battlefield.

All was silent for a few long moments, as the Tallgeese II and Gundam NT-1 regarded each other. Finally, Treize spoke. "I would have your name, Gundam pilot."

Christina was fighting a tide of rising panic. Tallgeese II had just taken down one of the best Oldtype pilots in the entire Izumo squadron and a Gundam X, the super weapon that ended a world. She didn't stand a chance against the Tallgeese II and she knew it.

She was going to die here. There was no avoiding that. But if she died quickly, Treize would surely begin picking off other, more vital units. Maybe he'd even match the Gold Frame or Turn-A with the Tallgeese II's hellish speed and relentless saber. She had to stall him as long as she could. Everyone was counting on her, though they couldn't know it.

"... MacKenzie. Christina MacKenzie," she said.

"Ah, yes... I remember you, Lieutenant. The woman who asked me an excellent question."

"Are you going to answer it?"

"Eh?"

"My question. Are you going to answer it? You aren't attacking, so you're going to ask me to surrender... and I can't do that unless I know why you want the Beyonder's prize." Christina fought to control a tremble in her voice.

"Of course. At this point... yes, I can give you the answer you deserve. Christina MacKenzie, I am fighting here for the sake of the human race, in all worlds and all times. It is my sincerest wish to save everyone who can be saved."

"Saved? Saved from what?"

"Corruption, fear, poverty, dishonor... all the evils born of indolence and mindless greed. When I win the Beyonder's war game, Christina MacKenzie, I shall petition this being for a share of his power. Through that power, I will create a world where the human race is tempered to a state of perfection."

Christina couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What? But that's... I mean, you're talking about becoming a god!"

"Why not? The people of every world cry out for a God to save them from themselves. Why shouldn't I give them an answer? Consider the events that have shaped your world's history, Christina MacKenzie. Colony drops, gas attacks, nuclear weapons! Your people call these foul indignities "war," but I would call them by their true name: butchery! And with the Beyonder's power, I would end them!"

"Why- why didn't you just say that? We may not agree with everything you want to do, but we'd agree with that! We've seen what happened to Witz's world! We know that's what the Universal Century will become, at this rate!"

"I cannot know which among you... even among my own men... are enlightened enough to accept and understand my philosophy. For there is only one solution to the problem of man's endless butchery of man... and that is the true practice of war, honorable combat. The human race must be steeped in clean and pure combat, and tempered by an eternal duel of honor. This is the only way to weed out all that is weak and ignoble in man."

Christian fell silent, struggling to comprehend the enormity of what Treize wanted. Clearly he had been a man of great ambition on his home world, and now the glimpse of the Beyonder's power had inflated that ambition into something boundless.

Treize took her silence as a sign of possible understanding, perhaps even acceptance. "Can you imagine it? Freed of all the ills of Pandora's Box, ours could become a race of gods and heroes!" Treize's voice soared as he spoke.

His charisma was undeniable. For a fleeting moment, Christian almost thought she could see the Teutonic utopia Treize yearned for, a world where every man was a Domon Kasshu. A world free of mass-produced death. And yet...

"What about Witz?" Christina's voice cracked as she spoke. A terrible, intense emotion was rising in her. "What about Ed? Am I supposed to believe they weren't good enough for your new world?"

"Birth is always accompanied by blood and pain. That is the price of new life."

Christina could no longer control the rage rising in her. She had never been so angry in all her life, yet there was a terrible clarity to it. She felt as if she was seeing the world in perfect focus for the first time. Fear fell away from her, irrelevant in the face of truth that now seemed obvious.

"That's an excuse! Just an excuse, and not even a good one! You killed them... you killed them, and for nothing! Your plan is the stupidest thing I've ever heard! You just want to convince yourself that you've got the right to play god!" Christina's hands flew over her control panels as she spoke.

"Power is the given right of the man who can seize it honorably!" Treize retorded.

Before, she'd fought on the Alex's Oldtype settings, afraid of losing control of the machine. Now, she didn't care. She had to stop Treize or at least slow him down, no matter the cost. If that meant opening herself up to the machine's advanced settings on a battlefield, the ones she now understood were meant for a Newtype, then she'd brave it.

"You don't have the right to talk about honor! You're a monster, Treize Khushrenada!" Christina's fist slammed forward. The Alex looked no different, but to Christina it felt different, the joints looser, its data feeds more rapid. "You're a monster, and I'm going to stop you. For Witz, for Ed, for everyone who's died for your stupid ambitions!"

Treize could not help but sound a bit disappointed. "I take it, then, that you will not surrender?"

"If you want the Beyonder's prize, Treize, you'll have it over my dead body!"

"So be it. I will do you the honor of a final duel, Lieutenant MacKenzie. Let fate be our judge!" Tallgeese II's optics flared. The suit brought its beam saber forward, shield raised, stance perfect. No attack from the front would get through Tallgeese II's immaculate guard.

The NT-1's stance was at best a mechanical parody of Tallgeese II's perfection, as it hefted its tower shield and ignited its own beam saber. Christina could feel the adrenaline coursing through her body, her muscles tensing. She felt a sureness that was strange and new, a sense of the world falling into order. Possibility narrowed to a single point. Stop Treize.

Treize saw an obvious opening to strike. Tallgeese II's massive thrusters flared and the machine soared forward, weaving expertly, the tip of the blade poised at the machine's upper torso. Treize expected the duel to be short, as he saw no way for the NT-1 to prevent him from getting within its guard.

Somehow, he misjudged. With startling speed, the Alex brought its arm up and parried. There was a flash as the magnetic fields of the two blades briefly met. The Alex's verniers flared and juked briefly downward, the surged up in a rising lunge. It had gotten within Tallgeese's guard somehow, though it had no available targets save the anti-beam shield. The NT-1's beam saber scorched a dark mark across the shield's surface, but no more.

Treize was surprised and, altogether, quite pleased. It seemed impossible to him that any combatant with such a sloppy stance could have the knowledge necessary to read his moves. And yet she clearly had known what he was going to do a fraction of a second before he did it, an advantage that could empower any combatant.

"Have I underestimated you, Lieutenant MacKenzie?" Treize asked, reassessing his opponent.

"You underestimated a woman's grief!" Christina cried.

"Grief is a pernicious emotion. In moderation, it can be noble, even fortifying," Treize responded. He wasn't rattled by Christina's sudden competence and fury, merely curious at it. "But taken to an excess, it leads to foolish and self-destructive behavior."

Tallgeese II swung its great beam saber up in a wide, powerful arc. The NT-1's only hope of defense was to parry with her own saber, as Treize had rightly judged. For a moment the sabers clashed, raining brilliant sparks into the blackness around them. While Christina could make the movement in time, she couldn't compensate for the difference in output between the two sabers, though. She broke the lock and juked back to prevent heat damage from taking its toll, a move that Treize found inevitable.

Treize pressed the attack, Tallgeese II moving swiftly forward into another arcing saber slash. Christina couldn't possibly get the NT-1's saber up in time for a second parrying stroke. Instead the NT-1 was forced to heft its shield into position for defense. The great slab of gundarium was only slightly better than useless against such a high-intensity blade. Tallgeese II's beam saber sheared through both the metal and the hand that held it, leaving NT-1's wrist a charred stump.

Tallgeese II tried a follow-up swing, smoothly reversing momentum to bring its beam saber up NT-1's center mass. This time the machine juked back and then low, before its thrusters flared. Though already at melee range, the NT-1 began to barrel forward at the Tallgeese II. Treize saw a fatal mistake in that. A single thrust through the cockpit block, most likely at the machine's center mass, would end her completely. A tragic end, though beautiful in its own way.

The Tallgeese II's counter-thrust hit home, sinking deep into NT-1's metal body and surely cracking its reactor block. Yet the machine did not explode immediately or show signs of having lost its pilot. Treize realizes his blow had hit, but not true- it was just off to the side and a bit too high. Christina had bought herself a few more seconds of life, though a more grisly end. Instead of instant immolation, the saber's heat would simply boil away the machine's innards over a comparatively agonizing period of long seconds.

For a moment it seemed to Treize she had simply tried to evade and failed, but then there was the Tallgeese II's damage sensors began to scream at him. Then Treize realized what she'd done- she'd used an opening to bait him in, then sacrificed her machine and her own life to force an opening. The NT-1's beam saber was strong enough to thrust through the Tallgeese II's torso armor at such close range, and she was moving it upwards with hellish precision. In seconds, they would die together.

"Pride can be foolish, too." Christina's voice was ragged and pained. The heat in the cockpit was, no doubt, already close to unbearable.

Seconds later, both machines were consumed in a hideous shower of sparks as both reactors malfunctioned, overheated, and overloaded. The fireballs blossomed in an area of space gone silent, where only lost and damaged Mobile Suits remained. Debris sprayed the hull of the Dogos Gear as it began to pass, impassively, beneath what was moments before a battlefield.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

So it always seemed kind of strange to me that one of the first Mobile Suits designed explicitly for Newtype use by the Federation had an Oldtype test pilot. It seemed to me that even a really good Oldtype wouldn't keep up with Amuro's reactions (and you see Christina wrestling with this in the OVA). There are clear production reasons for doing things this way in 0080 itself.

But to be a continuity nerd for a moment: why did the Federation assign an Oldtype to the job, and not one of the zillion latent Newtypes that are running around in OYW sidestories and video games? Wait, what if Christina was one of those latent Newtypes, and we just never need to see her full potential on-camera in the UC canon? That seemed like a good compromise, to me, for a story like this.

-X-X-X-

A lot of Mizuki Nana music was the writing soundtrack for this chapter. Sometimes her stuff is a bit too peppy for me to associate with Gundam, but for some reason it felt right this time.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

- KIA / DESTROYED

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	53. Chapter 53

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: In the wake of deaths on both sides, the battle intensifies, and pilots must make choices with deadly consequences.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

For the men who waited aboard the Izumo, the battles around them played out in a series of colored lights that moved about a flat monitor in a real-time simulation. Everything was too far away for a more detailed visual.

Known units were identified by their call number, while unknowns were simple red dots. In the span of only a few minutes, two friendlies had winked out to signify the destruction of the unit and two more had shifted to yellow, signifying severe damage.

The sudden paroxysm of violence was sobering for Shiro. "... yeah, that's... that's the NT-1 gone, too. What hit them so hard?"

"It had to be Treize," Heero said. "But they stopped him, somehow." The young man's voice was not exactly sad, but there was a somber quality to it. A red unknown light had winked out alongside the NT-1.

Domon closed his eyes, one hand balling into a fist. "After surviving so much, for Witz to die this way..."

Shiro peered at the simulation, deep in thought. "So that's probably the Gelgoog and the Gundam X disabled... that can turn into a really bad scene."

Heero eyed him. "Taking the Izumo into the battlefield would mean its certain destruction."

"Right, so why do that? I've got options."

"What do you intend, Shiro Amada?" Domon asked.

"You're here because you can't deploy," Shir said. "Which means you can watch the ship while I sortie, right?"

"You have a Mobile Suit?" Heero asked.

"Nope! But I've got a Mobile Pod, and I'm going to use it!" Shiro pushed himself free of the Izumo hangar's floor and cleared much of it in a single low-gravity leap.

He touched down before a round thing that Heero belatedly realized was supposed to be some sort of mobile weapon. He'd thought it was a maintenance unit of some sort. "It... looks..." Heero did not quite seem able to find the words.

"Like a deathtrap," Domon finished.

Shiro scowled. "Oh, come on! You two don't even know what a Ball is, you don't get to tell me it sucks! It may not look like much, but it's got a tow line for hauling. So I can get the Gelgoog and the Gundam X's wreckage back to base!"

Domon crossed his arms. "You're taking your life in your hands, Shiro Amada."

"I'm not much of a soldier... no, not much of an officer if I don't."

"Ranks mean nothing here," Heero said.

"It's not about rank." All lightness left Shiro's voice. "An officer has to watch out for his men, so I can't just leave those guys stuck in wrecks out there."

"But you were fighting Commander Ridden's country before you came here, weren't you?" Domon asked.

"That's beside the point! Look, maybe this isn't a problem where you two come from, but a disabled Mobile Suit is a death trap. You can drift out of range, run out of power, run out of air... if those guys die out there, I'm responsible for it, because I wasn't able to save them. I have to try, even if the only chance I have is a lousy one."

Domon had no idea what to say. Shiro's words were noble and highly impractical, more George de Sand than Colonel Urube. Shiro lacked even the cold pragmatism Domon had seen in other men from the Universal Century.

"I can guard the ship well enough. Get going." Heero's voice was still flat, but there was a pained note in it. The young man suddenly focused on nothing but the monitor bank before him.

Domon could sympathize. If he was less well-trained in how a warrior was to carry himself, he too might find Shiro Amada difficult to look in the eye. "As he said. We will see to the ship."

"That's what I wanted to hear! Trust me, you won't regret this." Shiro's grin was grateful, if not entirely confident.

-X-X-X-

Cima Garahau ceased firing the Gerbera Tetra's chainguns, thoroughly convinced that she was simply wasting ammo at this point. She'd thought she was scoring direct hits on the Turn-A, but the last visual she'd gotten of the unit made it seem that her guns weren't even scuffing the thing's paint job. There wasn't evidence of even the slightest scoring, though Cima could've sworn she'd seen it before.

This seemed like a moment where discretion was the better part of valor. Cima couldn't even try to close the gap through pilot skill, as it had become increasingly obvious that Turn-A's pilot and Haman Karn were simply too good for her to keep up with.

The two maneuvered their MS like clashing comets, smashing together at melee range with twin sabers. A flurry of feints and parries heralded a few sincere attempts to tear each other apart, followed by the Qubeley and Turn-A breaking apart. If the Gerbera Tetra tried to wade into that at close range, it would be torn apart. Cima maneuvered her machine around and went to look for easier prey.

-X-X-X-

Christina MacKenzie's death washed across the battlefield, an emotional ripple spreading through still waters. For Kira Yamato, it was a sensation familiar and awful. He had tried to describe it to Lacus once and failed utterly, not able to articulate it.

"It's beginning." Kira wasn't entirely sure if he was speaking aloud, or simply thinking very loudly. The thought was so insistent he felt it would make his skull burst. "They're going to slaughter each other..."

He already felt the familiar paralysis of indecision. Kira was unwilling to fire upon Haman Karn, it felt wrong to him. He no longer felt able to fight Amuro Ray's Turn-A in good conscience, either. He didn't know what to do. The entire battle, the entire Gundam War, began to feel pointless to him.

"Kira!" A familiar voice broke through on his comms. "What is Kira doing?"

The sense of unreality growing around him faded. "- Stellar?" He glanced down. Freedom's sensors clearly indicated that Gaia was approaching. "Stellar, you shouldn't be here!"

"Stellar is going to help Kira fight!"

Kira was taken aback. "Stellar, no! Just get out of here!"

"No! Stellar will save her friends!"

Her courage made Kira feel ashamed of himself. Even if her motivation was simple to the point of absurdity, at least she could grasp a reason to fight. "It's not that simple... I wish it was! Just get out while you can!"

"But why would Stellar run from us, Yamato? Aren't we all on the same side?" The Gerbera Tetra's sleek red silhouette approached, its beam machine gun hefted. Cima's voice dripped acid.

Cima knew that for all their terrifying offensive capacity, Cosmic Era machines couldn't shrug off beam fire. She'd be able to have some fun dealing with the traitor and maybe even with Yamato, who seemed to be having some sort of nervous breakdown.

"L-lieutenant! What are you doing?" Kira was instantly on edge.

"I could ask you the same thing, Yamato! Stellar's already declared her intention to join the other side. What about you?" The Gerbera Tetra leveled its beam machine gun's barrel at Freedom's barrel chest.

"I..." Kira found himself tongue-tied. "... I don't want to h-hurt you, b-but..."

"I see. So we have another traitor on our hands!"

It was Stellar who shot first, a quick blast toward the Gerbera Tetra's center mass from Gaia's beam rifle. A less agile Mobile Suit in the hands of a less canny pilot might have been caught flat-footed. Cima was able to juke the Gerbera Tetra upward and aside, while countering with a quick burst of her beam machine gun.

As always with burst fire, some of the blasts went wide, while a few barreled toward Gaia's center mass. Remarkably, those shots never connected with Gaia at all. With motions almost too swift for the eye to see, Freedom moved to block the beam bursts with two swift, perfect motions of its beam saber. Cima was speechless. It was a stunt virtually impossible for any UC machine, due to issues of reaction lag.

Between its quantum computer and its exceptional pilot, Freedom suffered no such limits. "No! Don't do that again... I won't let you hurt anyone. Just leave, Lieutenant!"

"You impetuous brat... don't you dare tell me to run from you!" Cima's voice rose. In her agitation, she failed to see the new unit that appeared at the far edge of her instrument range.

"I- that's not it- you should go, you're in danger here!" Kira had an inkling of what was coming, though not one he could articulate well.

"Enough! Your bleeding heart makes me sick!" Cima spat. The Gerbera Tetra hefted its beam machine gun to open fire on Freedom and Gaia. The shots never came.

A sniper's high-powered beam shot tore through the guts of the Gerbera Tetra, piercing its reactor and boiling away the machine's shielding armor. The shot didn't take out the cockpit block, leaving Cima a few final, agonizing moments to watch her systems fail.

"SIEG ZEON!" A voice Cima hated above all others, swollen with prime and scorn, tore through her instruments. It was the last thing she heard before a horrific explosion consumed her and her ill-fated machine.

"Mister Gato!" Stellar exclaimed.

"Lieutenant," he corrected. His Zaku-green Marasai was just on the edge of visual range, its enormous and deadly feyadeen rifle securely mounted over one arm. "I see our faith in you was well-placed, Ensign Loussier. Welcome back. I see that you don't return alone."

Kira trembled in his cockpit, the impact of Cima's death peppering his mind like buckshot. Kira hadn't really felt threatened by her. Aboard the Granshirio, she'd seemed tired and somehow sad. Kira couldn't imagine how anyone deserving such a piteous fate as the fireball that had blossomed in space before him.

The Marasai's GINN-like monoeye swung toward the Freedom as it came closer. "Identify yourself, soldier," Gato said.

Kira's frustrations erupted all at once. "- why? Why did you do that to her?"

"What? Stellar, what's the meaning of this?"

"Kira, don't be mad. Lieutenant Gato is good..."

"Shooting people in the back isn't good!"

Gato was outraged. "This is a battlefield! I didn't come here to parley. Loussier, whoever this is, get him off the front lines-"

"- I won't let you keep killing!" Though one of its "wings" was damaged, the HiMAT system flared to life. One of the Xiphias rail cannons rose into position and fired off a shot, the blast tearing the Marasai's right arm off at the shoulder. The feyadeen rifle, though intact, was blown away in a hail of shrapnel.

Gato was momentarily stunned, the entire attack flashing by before he could even react. "- you're a madman!" he spat. The suit's remaining arm quickly groped for the machine's beam sabers.

"Kira, no! Don't shoot at friends!" Stellar wheeled Gaia around, interposing the heavy black machine between Freedom and the Marasai.

"Stellar, you don't understand! Someone like that isn't anybody's friend!"

"Who the hell are you to judge!" A new Mobile Suit entered the fray, descending upon Freedom from twelve o' clock. Kira's reflexes were already propelling Freedom to the right, the HiMAT system spinning it to the side in a swift quarter-turn. The super-heated blade of an anti-ship sword cleaved through the empty space where Freedom was a split-second before.

The new machine that faced Freedom had the familiar lines of a Strike variant, though the weapons bolted to its body weren't familiar. Kira struggled to place it. "Strike... Strike Rouge?"

"You wish!" The pilot all but screamed back at him. The blood-red Strike had an anti-ship sword in either hand, the very picture of brutal excess.

"Asuka! Be careful, that thing's pilot is a lunatic!" Gato said.

"I know!" Shin's voice nearly cracked from the force of his anger. "Trust me, I know all about this son of a bitch!"

"No! Shin, no! Why are Stellar's friends fighting?"

"Kira Yamato isn't anybody's friend! Keep away from him, Stellar!" Shin's voice was harsh with rage.

"D-don't- don't talk to her like that! You're just using her!" Kira was finding it easy to believe that even if Treize had been wrong about Amuro Ray, he'd been right about the rest of the Izumo forces being battle-hungry psychopaths.

"You self-righteous prick! Surrender or it's on!" Strike Red hefted one of its anti-ship swords in Freedom's direction.

"Never! Not to you people!" Kira shouted back. Freedom's beam cannons, useless in its earlier fights, began to align themselves.

Gato's scowl became a pained grimace He'd been prepared to face a lot of things upon taking the field, but not chaos like this. He was caught between two petulant children piloting units that seemed, to him, incomprehensibly powerful. They were all sitting ducks, simply waiting for one of the Izumo's other pilots to take advantage of the situation.

"Stop!" Stellar cried, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "Shin! Kira! Please stop!"

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

C'mon, you knew this was coming.

-X-X-X-

Written to Gundam AGE Soundtrack 1. It's not bad at all. Really!

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kira Yamato / Freedom

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	54. Chapter 54

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: In the wake of deaths on both sides, the battle intensifies, and pilots must make choices with deadly consequences. The storm of deception surrounding Kira Yamato finally breaks.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Dogos Gear was now within visual range of its target, the Granshirio... at least, that's what its sole passenger guessed. Michelo Charior had retreated into the Dogos Gear's bulk to escape his pursuers before, and that had worked out well enough.

Some pilots might have thought things going poorly for their faction, given the string of sudden losses for the Granshirio side, but Michelo remained confident. The remaining units were gathering into a single skirmish, and the Granshirio units that survived were among the toughest.

Michelo had been content, up to this point, to let stuffed suits think they were in charge. One by one, they'd all failed him or worse. Haman Karn seemed like a tough bird, but this time Michelo was going to really teach the Izumo what it meant to oppose the top mafioso of Neo-Italy.

-X-X-X-

Volleys of bright beams tore through the blackness of space as Strike Red and Freedom opened fire on each other, battling at range. Freedom evaded Strike Red's Kerberos cannon blasts by a wide margin, while Shin could tell that he was pushing Strike Red to its limit to evade. Perhaps even worse, Shin already knew that he couldn't win.

Maybe with a more powerful machine, or even a fresh Strike Red, he might've been able to push himself to victory. As it stood, though, Shin could tell that Strike Red's battery was dangerously low. Without the battery extender, he would've already run out, in fact. Freedom's famous Hi-MAT could pulp a machine even through Phase Shift armor. Shin tried not to think about what would happen if he got hit while Phase Shift Down, even if it was increasingly obvious that Kira Yamato wasn't shooting to kill.

What kept Shin fighting, despite his enormous disadvantage, was fear. He wasn't afraid for himself, but he was afraid for Stellar and, to a lesser extent, Gato. Gato was a Natural, if a very skilled one, and Stellar was... well, Stellar. They weren't on Kira Yamato's level, and exactly the sorts of people who died because someone "greater" was being thoughtless. People were fragile, and you didn't need murderous intent to get someone killed.

Also, Shin had to admit it, to himself if no one else... it infuriated him to hear Kira say Stellar's name.

He vented that rage in a guttural cry as he charged Freedom, juking up and down to evade the other machine's hail of counter-fire. He could press harder this way then he might dare against an opponent who wasn't shooting to disable. As Shin hoped, Freedom's beam fire thinned as he drew too near.

He swung the anti-ship sword in Strike Red's right hand in a high, wide arc at Freedom, hoping to shear off the machine's beam cannons. He swung the blade in his machine's left hand in a low arc, hoping to shear away the rail guns that sat just below the base of the cockpit block. As furious as Shin was, he couldn't bring himself to take a direct shot at the cockpit of an opponent who wouldn't do the same to him.

Freedom's sabers moved with unreal speed and grace as Kira emitted his own cry of rage and frustration, each moving into position to parry Strike Red's enormous blades. Sparks rained from the point where the beam saber's magnetic field contacted the supercharged metal that served as the anti-ship sword's cutting surface. Shin could see the stress of the clash slowly drain Strike Red's battery meter, but he didn't dare pull away.

"Surrender, damn you!" Shin shouted.

"Not to you! Never to you!" Kira shouted back.

Nearly simultaneously, both pilots fired their machine's rail guns. The impacts were harmless, breaking against Phase Shift Armor, but the kinetic force of the impacts slammed the clashing machines apart. Smoke rose harmlessly from Freedom's barely-damaged frame, while Strike Red's computers screamed that the machine might be Phase Shift Down at any moment.

-X-X-X-

Just at the edge of visual range from Freedom and Strike Red's battle, the Qubeley dueled Turn-A Gundam. Though, properly speaking, it was not really a match of machine against machine. In truth, it was a struggle almost purely between the spirits of Haman Karn and Amuro Ray.

With the Qubeley stripped of its most deadly weapons, Haman Karn had resorted to using her own Newtype abilities as a weapon in a duel where she otherwise had little more to use than her beam sabers. Oldtypes could be simply paralyzed by a solid Psychic Hit and few Newtypes could grapple with her successfully. Amuro Ray was like nothing she had ever encountered before, though.

Against him, a Psychic Hit broke like a wave against a rocky cliff. She couldn't get through, couldn't even get a handhold on anything about him. His mind was cold and remote, carefully shut against outside intrusion. She might've thought him utterly impotent, some sort of failed Newtype, if not for how she'd sensed his contact with Kira Yamato earlier. He capable of being active, but remarkably, seemed just as capable of closing himself off.

"Are you afraid of me, Amuro Ray?" she hissed in frustration over open comms. "Is that why you're hiding from me?" She swung the Qubeley's sabers forward, energy blades crashing silently against the Turn-A's curiously slim yet utterly sturdy beam sabers.

Turn-A's parry and counter was smooth and automatic, with an almost machine-like precision. Its sabers locked against the Qubeley's, the two machines straining. "I have no use for your kind, Haman Karn!"

She laughed. "Who have you ever met that's anything like me, you Federation dog?"

Haman could feel Amuro's pressure change as anger rose in him. Ah, she'd hit a nerve! She pounced at the momentary weakness, the only fire in a man who was otherwise a frigid wasteland. She recoiled as she discovered its all-too-familiar source. Char! Her mind erupted in a surge of hatred and passion. The psychic contact began to spiral out of her control.

Amuro was overwhelmed by the flood of images. He disliked this sort of Newtype activity as a rule, but Haman was too completely his opposite for it to last long, or be very pleasant for the duration. The only open conduit between them was their mutual hatred of Char Aznable. Two hurt, angry people spewed mental bile at each other, trading every slight, every bitterness, every memory of misery and inadequacy.

An instant later, the connection severed. The machines slammed apart, the combatants momentarily unable to continue.

Haman's hands trembled in fury. Her voice was anguished. "You... you worm, you filth, it was you! He left me to find you! He left me... I wasn't even the first!"

Amuro had a better handle on his emotions, but not by much. Nothing of Char's behavior toward Haman had surprised him. "- even now, all you care about is yourself! You and Char deserved each other!"

"We did! But you, you and that whore poisoned it before it even began-!"

Turn-A's chest cannon roared to life, a focused shot lancing out at the Qubeley with terrible accuracy. A pilot any lesser than Haman would've been obliterated. At that, in her agitated state, Haman barely managed to juke her machine away from the blast in time. Amuro said nothing, too angry to speak.

In his rage, Amuro had entered a state of frigid lucidity. A part of him was perfectly aware of the events unfolding in the battlefield. It would not sorrow over them yet, not even the light in Christina that had shone all too briefly. Sadness was part of the luxury of rest.

What he focused on now what not the events already past, but the events that were unfolding as the few actors left in the battle began to converge. With a terrible but perfect clarity, he realized that the wheel of fate was spinning toward a tragedy that need never be repeated. Any further time spent on Haman was wasted.

The Qubeley was motionless in space, its pilot on the defensive. A second attack from the Turn-A never came.

"This isn't finished." Amuro's voice was cold and clear. After that, the Turn-A vanished entirely from the Qubeley's instruments and visuals. She had only the vaguest impression of where the pilot might be now, as none of his pressure was turned against her.

Retreat? No... no, this was a dismissal. Without another unit to keep up the pressure, nothing stopped the Turn-A from simply disengaging. What was most bitter for Haman was realizing that there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She had only fought the invisible Gold Frame Amatu by following its considerable pressure. The Turn-A now exerted none against her, because Amuro Ray had judged her beneath his notice.

Haman's rage reached out, a living thing that flickered with blackness. If only she could command her bits and fight without her Qubeley so miserably crippled... and as if in response, she could feel one of the remote weapons rattle at her command. She couldn't move it, not yet, but whatever was draining the Qubeley's connection to its bits was weakening. If she could only prolong the battle, just a bit more...

"Commander Karn!" The voice came from a unit at the edge of her sensory radius.

"... Allelujah," Haman said. The path before was suddenly clear. The Beyonder's prize was not yet out of her grasp.

"Commander, are you alright? Colonel Treize sent me to reinforce Kira, but..."

"Yes... yes, Meister Haptism. Something distracted the Turn-A's pilot. Let's use it to our advantage. Go reinforce Yamato. I'll be right behind you."

-X-X-X-

"No! No more fighting! Stellar's friends mustn't fight!" She was shouting through tears, heartbroken at what she'd imagined should be a happy occasion had turned into. Gaia started forward, shield raised high and weapon lowered.

"Stellar, don't interfere! They're using live ordinance!" Gato shouted at her, but with a sick sense of futility building in him. All sense of discipline had broken down, and he knew his orders would carry no weight here.

"No! Stellar has to do something!"

Freedom was already preparing another volley of fire from its Balaena cannons, Hi-MAT wings spreading for maximum mobility. Shin couldn't be sure that Strike Red had another evasive maneuver in it. He could only raise the Kerberos's cannons and hope desperately that he managed to do some damage to that hideously unstoppable blue beast before he was disabled.

Kira felt that something was horribly, unmistakably wrong as he hit his firing switch. His spatial awareness had dropped away as he focused on battling Strike Red's stubborn, resourceful pilot. His shots were perfectly aimed to disable Strike Red... but not the new unit barreling into his firing line.

"Stop fighting!" The words echoed in Shin's ears as, mute from horror, he realized Gaia was in the way of Strike Red's final shot.

"Stellar, no!" Kira couldn't get the words out before an explosion of light consumed Freedom's visual range.

-X-X-X-

The blinding light was the radiance of the Kerberos and Balaena beams washing harmlessly around a great I-field, so intense as to render itself perfectly invisible, that stood at the exact point where Gaia had been charging a moment before. As the light dimmed, the I-field slowly shimmered as it lost intensity. Within it was the Turn-A Gundam, one arm around Gaia's chest. It had "caught" the charging Mobile Suit, as if breaking a fall.

Amuro's voice ripped over open comms. "Do you have any idea what you almost did? Stand down, both of you!"

"Sir, yes sir." Shin's relief was overwhelming, tears welling in his functioning eye. Strike Red's stance went slack, the Phase Shift armor flickering. Shin would never be gladder to receive a tongue-lashing from a superior officer.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." Freedom's sabers extinguished, the machine's stance going slack. Kira could no longer bear to put his hands on the controls. "I didn't, I'd never-"

"What did you think was going to happen?" Gato's voice rose in rage from the Marasai. "Only a fool fires a gun on a battlefield and thinks he won't hurt anyone!"

"Y-you killed Cima!" Kira began. "She wasn't a threat to anyone, and you-"

"Don't lecture at me about that woman's innocence! You have no idea how much blood is on her hands!" Gato snapped.

Shin spoke up. "She stabbed us all in the back, and helped Michelo kill Flay!" The rage in his voice surprised even himself.

"What?" Kira was stunned. It was exactly what Garrod had said back on the Granshirio... "B-but... Michelo said Shin Asuka did it!"

"Like hell I did!" Shin roared. PHASE SHIFT DOWN blinked in livid red letters across all of his monitor screens as Strike Red's armor finally went grey. If Kira chose to disbelieve him, Shin was quite aware that he was completely vulnerable.

"Kira! Stellar told you, Michelo tells lies!"

"She's right," Amuro added, a bit too furious to manage more. The way Michelo had manipulated the situation from only a few scraps of information genuinely disgusted him.

"Asuka stood up to Chariot manfully," Gato snarled. "You're a fool if you believe otherwise, Yamato!"

"What have I done?" Kira couldn't conceal the sense of shame that washed over him. It was painful enough to wring tears from him. "Garrod was right about everything, and I didn't believe him... I was afraid to believe him..."

"Then stop crying and do something about it now!" Shin snapped. "Nobody cares about how many mistakes you've made, just stop repeating them!"

"... you're right." Kira sat in Freedom's cockpit, breathing, the pain in his temples receding. Everything seemed much clearer to him now. "You're right. I was being selfish, and... there's no time for that."

"That's right! Shin is out of power!" Stellar exclaimed. "He needs to go back to the ship!"

"Could you cover Lieutenant Gato's Marasai so he can haul Strike Red back to the Izumo?" Amuro asked. "I won't ask you to fight former allies right this second, but that much would go a long way to helping keep them both alive."

"I think I'd rather take my chances out here," Shin grumbled.

Gato snorted. "If I can put up with a ship full of bleeding heart Earthnoids, Asuka, you can put up with Yamato."

-X-X-X-

A comms signal flickered to life on Neros Gundam's panoramic screen. "Michelo Chariot, this is Haman Karn. Do you read me?"

"Loud an' clear. What kept you so long?"

"I was distracted. Chariot, what's your position?"

"For twisting the necks of those Izumo goons? Couldn't be better."

"Haptism is heading in. I am aware that you are not a man who takes orders, but-"

"If you got an idea, spill it."

"- be his vanguard. Buy me time. No more than two, three minutes. The field draining my bits is weakening steadily. The Izumo's forced are at their limit. If you two can take out the Turn-A, I can finish this."

"Hate to say it, but Mustache Gundam's pretty tough. You think that goon is really up to it?"

"- we haven't seen Haptism's full potential yet. I intend to draw it out. Simply pave the way for me."

"Izzat so?" Michelo chuckled to himself. "Then why the hell not? Just remember, Karn, you'd better hold up your end of the bargain."

"I do not intend to die or fail here, Michelo Chariot. That leaves only victory."

-X-X-X-

The surge of pressure from above was unmistakable, as was its target. A wave of energy erupted from the Dogos Gear as it passed overhead, blasting debris out in a wide, high-velocity spray. The gathered Izumo forces were caught nearly flat-footed. Turn-A hurled itself at Strike Red's inert form, Gaia moving a fraction of a second behind, to throw it out of the attack's way. The Marasai used Freedom as cover.

Neros Gundam descended upon the Izumo defenders, a blood-red eagle swooping to its prey. Michelo cackled triumphantly. "Thanks for setting these idiots up for me, Yamato!"

"- you!" Kira shouted. An uncomfortable rage was beginning to rise in him.

Amuro cursed. The Izumo's units were clustered together too tightly for him to use any of Turn-A's ranged weapons, and at melee was where Neros would be at its most dangerous. "We all know you're a liar by now, Chariot!"

"Even with help, I thought a dork like Yamato'd never figure it out!" Neros used its verniers to slow its descent, spinning to a stop with the beam emitters on one leg already glowing.

"You- you're going to pay for using me! For using everyone!" Kira shouted. His previous orders forgotten, he impulsively swung Freedom's Hi-MAT system into a high acceleration mode.

"Nah, don't think so. I think I'm going to do all you idiots right here, just like I did your stupid little girlfriend." A scythe-like grin crossed his face. Neros whipped its leg forward, its Silver Legs flashing. A terrible light filled Kira's monitor.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

As far as I can tell, Gundam SEED canon tends to treat anti-ship swords and beam sabers as roughly equivalent weapons. So, even though that's not entirely intuitive to me, that's how I played it off for the story.

The idea that a machine loses communications once it's Phase Shift Down is a supposition. I tried researching this one and just couldn't find much of anything about how CE communication systems work.

The Psychic Hit is a weird thing Haman does all of once in Zeta Gundam, but I decided it was a pretty good basis for depicting her in Newtype combat. ZZ has some similar moments, though I don't think what's going on is ever really named.

-X-X-X-

A lot of Gundam AGE singles were the soundtrack to hammering out this chapter. The music's good! Really!

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	55. Chapter 55

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Haman Karn leads the Granshirio's forces in a final push toward victory.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Rondo Mina Sahaku had once regarded her Gold Frame Amatu as her ultimate seat of power, both sword and shield of House Sahaku's hopes. Now she had begun to think of it as a prison and, in her more morbid moments, a magnificent coffin. Amatu's damaged Maga no Ikutachi was slowly failing.

There was no danger of Gold Frame losing power, but once the Maga no Ikutachi was offline, she was certain Haman Karn's Qubeley would be out of range. Karn would have access to her remote weapons, and no shortage of damaged or disabled Izumo units to turn them against. It would be wholesale slaughter.

What was cruelest for Rondo was trying to figure out what to do about it. Repositioning Gold Frame was dangerous, and she'd already informed the others of how little time was left for them. She was not a woman fond of sitting and doing nothing, yet every option she could conceive had risks that outweighed any possible benefit.

She wondered, idly, if this is what failure was like. She hoped not. She'd lived as an exemplar of her ideals for long enough that she was not entirely sure what true failure was like. For this to be her lesson seemed entirely too bitter, even to her intensely cynical disposition.

-X-X-X-

Freedom surged up and over Neros's Silver Legs energy wave in a show of agility that would be unthinkable for a natural pilot. Freedom inverted itself, flying with its legs over its head, and dived at Neros with both sabers still drawn from its earlier battle with Strike Red.

Freedom's speed surprised Michelo, but Kira's sloppy melee form left him wide-open to retaliation. Neros couldn't charge another Silver Legs, but it had plenty of time to break Freedom's charge with a fast snap kick to the chest. In the zero-gravity environment, Michelo could easily move into a follow-up spin kick to Freedom's side. The impact did no direct damage to the Phase Shifted machine, but sent it spiraling off-course as the delicate balance the Hi-MAT system demanded was broken.

"Pathetic!" Michelo roared. "You're a waste of time!" While Kira struggled to regain control of Freedom, Neros charged a Silver Legs attack that would surely cleave through even Phase Shift armor. Before he could launch it, though, he felt killing intent surging from his six.

"You're fighting me now!" Amuro declared.

Neros whirled its charged leg around to meet a high saber thrust from Turn-A Gundam, one that would've speared his cockpit if unblocked. Energy crackled and sparks flew as the two high-energy weapons met. Turn-A stabbed forward with its off-hand, unwilling to give up the opening. Neros was forced to catch Turn-A's wrist with one hand, its heavy-duty motors struggling against the force generated by Turn-A's internal magnetic fields. For the moment, the two Mobile Suits were locked together.

"Not bad, soldier boy! Not bad, but-"

"Shut up!" Stellar cried.

Michelo suddenly realized he'd been lured into a trap. A new surge of killing intent was rushing in at him, from his nine. If Turn-A kept him locked up, he was a dead man. With a surge of strength, Neros took advantage of the zero gravity to bring its off-leg up and knee Turn-A in its chest, easily turning the super-light machine's hold into a throw.

At the same moment, Gaia's beam saber thrust upward, expertly shearing through the protruding front of Nero's chestplate- where the cockpit of a Cosmic Era MS would most likely be located. All that saved Michelo was the fact that Future Century cockpits were mounted from the back, where Mobile Suits from other worlds mounted reactors and thruster systems.

Michelo gritted his teeth and emitted a guttural screech from the pain that burned across his chest. "You little bitch!" Neros juked away from the Izumo Gundams. The thought that he'd nearly been killed by a worthless goon suit like Gaia made him livid.

"Next time Stellar will finish you!" Stellar spat back.

Amuro had an easier time regaining control of Turn-A than Kira had with Freedom, owing to its more sophisticated propulsion systems. He wanted to congratulate Stellar on following his lead so well with no instructions at all, but two flashes of pressure interrupted his train of thought. "- incoming!"

A hail of beam fire poured up at Turn-A and Gaia, possibly deadly if not for Turn-A's potent I-Field. Kyrios had arrived, the Qubeley in tow. They'd buy plenty of time for Michelo to recover.

"Kira! What the hell is going on here!" Al shouted, opening his comms. Kyrios had already transformed into MS mode, so it could make use of its beam submachinegun.

Freedom had righted itself and was surging back toward the skirmish. "Al! Al, Michelo's a killer!"

"So am I! What's your point?"

"My point is that he should be the enemy! You shouldn't be defending him!"

"- you, too? What line of bullshit has Garrod been filling your ears with, Kira?"

"The truth! Treize, Haman, Michelo- they've all been lying to us!"

"Dammit, Kira, you know I don't want to fight you!" Al swore. He changed Kyrios's trajectory, using it to cut Freedom off from the rest of the Izumo units. "But if you're really trying to switch sides, you know I have no choice!"

"Al! Please, just listen to me-"

"Unlike you, Yamato, Haptism understands what it means to be loyal!" Haman interrupted.

"You're just using him, Haman!" Amuro snapped. He emptied Turn-A's missile tubes at her, more as a distraction than a sincere attempt to destroy her machine. The Qubeley easily spun around and between the projectiles, as Amuro knew it would. His real goal was to interrupt her cover fire.

The moment she had an opening, Stellar's instincts took over. She sheathed her beam saber and brought up her own beam machine gun, countering with a wall of fire that Haman's Qubeley could avoid, but could not advance through easily. That let Amuro leave off covering Gaia long enough to turn his attention toward Kyrios. This battle would be too tight to allow Freedom to get pinned down- it would leave Strike Red and the Marasai defenseless, if the enemy should decide to go after them.

"Kyrios's pilot! If you don't want to fight Kira, then stand down! We will not fire on you unless fired upon!"

Al's eye narrowed in annoyance in his cockpit. "You-"

"You heard me! Lives are at stake, make your decision!"

"Al, please do what he says! You fight for a cause, not just because you're told! You don't have to do anything!"

Kyrios hesitated. The idea of turning on his allies was anathema to his basic instincts as a Super Soldier, which in turn were at war with his impulses as a person. His time with Kira had lead to him to believe that his friend was a deeply good person, and if Kira saw fault with Colonel Treize's cause, Al couldn't help but believe that Kira had to be right on some level. The internal conflict was agonizing. It awakened a terrible voice that lurked in the back of his mind, saying that he should just kill them all and end their meaningless prattling.

"No! No, you don't know what you're doing-"

"We're giving you a chance!" Amuro shouted.

Haman had quietly begun to build up another Psychic Hit as the Qubeley twirled and juked between Gaia's beam bursts. Things had played just as she'd hoped they would, the stress of his internal conflicts igniting a black spark inside his corrupted heart.

Haman cackled as she turned her invisible wrath against Allelujah's mind. "No- you're awakening a sleeping dragon!"

The move was entirely unexpected, instantaneous, and unstoppable. Amuro lacked the ability and Kira lacked the awareness. Al shrieked, Kyrios stiffening for a second as control input ceased. To the Oldtypes on the field, the moment was incomprehensible, but so terrifying it commanded full attention. Even Michelo could only comprehend it as Kyrios becoming the center of a surge of exquisitely potent killing intent.

For the Newtypes, it was as if an enormous black fireball of malevolent pressure blossomed on the battlefield, turning it into a sea of psychic flames. Haman stiffened, unprepared for the intensity of what she'd unleashed. She fell back, the Qubeley smoking as Gaia's last few beam shots grazed it. Instinctively, she knew that the farther she was from it, the safer she was.

Kira felt as if his brain had been set on fire. His mind instinctively retracted upon itself, a maneuver that succeeded only because he didn't have the terrible consciousness's full attention. Freedom stiffened, Kira unable to control it due to the waves of crippling and incomprehensible pain. The agony of battling Rau was nothing next to this.

Amuro bore the brunt of it, an assault of blind hatred unlike anything he'd comprehended before. The black fire was sticky and clung to the iron wall around his heart. His impregnable sense of superego, the defense that kept him beyond Paptimus Scirocco and Haman Karn's grasp, made him terribly vulnerable to the all-consuming id that was Hallelujah Haptism. It left Amuro deaf to the sound of his own screaming.

Hallelujah's golden eye flicked contemptuously over Kyrios's controls as he asserted control. "Think about that chance when I tear your guts out, you self-righteous prick!" Kyrios discarded its beam submachinegun and surged forward, branding its shield's as if it was a cutting weapon.

Haman struggled to control herself, in awe of the beautiful and horrible thing she'd awakened. Speech was difficult, but her forces had to seize the moment. "Michelo, now! Destroy Turn-A, and we've won!"

"SILVER LEGS!" Neros unleashed its long-charged attack, sending it coursing down at the prone Turn-A's back. The I-Field diffuses the worst of it, but it still slammed into the machine like a wall. A massive crack ran through Turn-A's head, other joints hissing and sizzling from the onslaught. One leg twisted off at the knee, shoulder armor cracked through, and one hand bent backwards upon itself as its knuckle joints shattered.

Amuro was aware of the damage, but could not grope his way out of the blinding pain in time to reassert control over the machine. Kyrios was upon the Turn-A neck, seizing the machine by its front faceplate. The point of its shield divided, forming a pair of pincers that slammed around Turn-A's chest plate. A plasma blade thrust out between them, burning through the superdense chest plate within seconds. As the point of the tore through Turn-A's back, Kyrios hefted the superlight machine over its head, one-handed.

Michelo surged forward, determined to turn the rest of the field into a bloodbath while Kyrios rampaged. Neros stopped short just out of melee range of Strike Red, which was now so low on power that it could barely move. "So where's your mouthy girlfriend now, punk?" Michelo sneered, Neros's beam emitters glowing as they built up his next killing shot.

"You coward!" Shin raged, knowing it was impotent. "Just do it-"

"Leave Shin alone!" Gaia's black bulk swam into Strike Red's limited field of vision.

"Stellar, no!"

"You wanna die, too? Be my guest!" Michelo cackled.

"Stellar, no..." Shin lowered his head in despair, as the one word Stellar could not bear to hear triggered its inevitable response. Her screams filled his cockpit, and Shin felt certain that after so many close scrapes and near-death escapes, this was probably the end. He could not imagine any last-minute rescue leading to their salvation now.

Reality had a way of not behaving according to Shin Asuka's expectations, though. Two completely extraordinary events proceeded to happen, roughly at the same time, which served to dramatically alter the course of the battle once more.

While the other combatants had essentially ignored him, Gato had focused on the slow and laborious process of extracting the beam rifle from his Marasai's weapons rack. This was difficult not only because he was doing it one-handed, but with what tended to be his off-hand while piloting a Mobile Suit. He extracted it shortly after Haman's Granshirio reinforcements arrived and had waited, patiently, for the best moment to use it. Before Neros could unleash its Silver Legs, the Marasai opened fire from below it. Michelo jerked back instinctively at the wall of beam fire, which grazed dangerous close to Neros's cockpit block.

"You've made much of your superiority to a soldier in a Mobile Suit, Michelo Chariot," Gato said. "But in the face of a mere beam rifle, you run just the same!"

"Why aren't you dead yet?" Hal growled. Despite a strike to where he imagined the cockpit must be, Turn-A's yowling pilot clearly still lived. Kyrios opened its beam pincers and kicked Turn-A away from itself. "Do I have to tear you apart piece by piece?"

After Kyrios's kick, one of its external cameras abruptly blinked out. A four-meter heavy metal spike, fired with incredible precision, had just smashed through the machine's left-hand eyeglass and buried it in the soft core of electronics that lay beneath. The spike was attached to a cable tether line that looped twice over the elbow of Kyrios's shield-arm, then pulled taut. Kyrios suddenly found itself unable to raise its weapon arm. Hal screeched in outrage.

At roughly six o'clock behind Kyrios, a small and insignificant mobile weapon at the end of the cable tether was pulling back on it with all the force its thrusters could muster, knowing that its effort couldn't last long but determined to do its best. "Not on my watch, you won't!" Shiro Amada shouted, with all the false bravado he could muster. "This fight isn't over yet!"

"Of all the ridiculous-" Haman cursed. She raised one of the Qubeley's arms, gritting her teeth against the pain. The Ball would be a small target, especially at this distance, but she still believed she'd be able to hit it.

It was Haman's malevolence and Shiro's quiet terror at his impending death that cut through the darkness that fogged Kira's mind. Something in him cracked open, silencing the chaos in his mind and revealing the possibilities before him with perfect clarity. The fight really wasn't over yet- provided he could act quickly.

Haman was incredulous to see her beam shot intercepted by one of Freedom's flying beam saber, hurled with a speech and precision that seemed both unlikely and entire unfair. The shot dissipated against the saber's stronger magnetic field, turning into a pulse of energy that rattled the Qubeley and sent her briefly reeling.

Freedom's Hi-MAT system activated, sending the winged machine streaming forward like a comet. With its now-empty hand, Freedom reached forward to take gentle hold of the struggling Ball. The other saber was at the ready, but did not yet thrust forward.

Killing Kyrios's pilot would be one way forward, but Kira's mind groped toward another. With his ability to push past the pain that radiated from Hal's mind, Kira's mind reached out- clumsily, blindly- to open the door that he felt certain Hal's other half hid behind.

#Al! I'm not letting you give up this easily!#

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

The idea that corrupt Newtype ability manifests as black flames is an idea from the Gundam novels I always quite liked. I've alluded to it a few times before this in the story, but I thought I'd mention it since I brought the idea fully into play for the first time here and it will come up again.

Watching over Hal's appearances in 00S1, the black flames were the first thing that came to mind, so I thought I'd play his manifestation off as something along those lines. This is playing 00's rules with quantum brainwaves a bit fast and loose, but I think it helps play up Al's more interesting aspects and integrate him with the other shows a bit better.

I usually observe a "no backsies" rule with Gundam Wars chapters, not going back and fixing things unless it's purely insignificant stuff like typos. Usually, if I screw up, I let it stand and just focus on moving the story forward.

The issue of Strike Red's comms really bothered me, though, so I actually went back and rewrote the relevant scenes of the last chapter. The way I did so doesn't impact this chapter, so you don't need to go back and re-read 54 if you read it already. Mainly, it's so the chapters flow a bit better when people sit down to read the whole thing in one shot. I hope this is the first and last time I do something like this.

-X-X-X-

I wrote this chapter to rather a lot of vintage 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog music. I really can't explain any correlation between that and the content of this chapter, but it's good stuff if you're in the mood for it.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Qubeley

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	56. Chapter 56

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: A great power sleeping in Turn-A awakens, with terrible consequences.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Al experienced Hal becoming dominant as a sense of separation, a feeling of standing outside of himself. He was disheartened, but not surprised to see that Hal could succeed against the Turn-A where he had failed. A sense of detached solitude usually accompanied Hal's episodes, so it was shocking when Al realized he was not watching Hal alone.

#- Kira?#

Kira could not understand the immaterial world his mind entered without thinking of it in concrete terms. He did not perceive himself being literally within Kyrios's cockpit, as that would obviously violate its physical dimensions, but instead as being in a long, dark corridor that stretched through space. Hal was at the end, behind a locked door. Al stood outside of it.

Al stepped forward, subconsciously adapting to the dimensionality that Kira imposed upon the interior space of his mind. #Kira, you shouldn't be here.#

#You shouldn't be here either!# Kira felt as if he was standing in the space he imagined, looking Al in the face. #You should be in the control room!#

Al had no idea what Kira meant. Was it Hal's space? That wasn't a control room... but then Al realized that, yes, it mostly certainly was. Just as Kira had invented the room and hallway to make sense of an abstract interaction, he'd also invented a metaphor for Hal's dominance. Al could reject neither concept without rejecting Kira completely, and he couldn't bring himself to do it.

#What the hell is going on out here?# The control room's automated door slid open. Hal stalked out, golden eye staring balefully at Kira. #Can't you wait your turn? I was going to get to you eventually.#

#No!# Al protested, but knew it was useless. Now that Kira proved himself able to get inside, he was a threat, and Hal would never tolerate him.

#I'm not afraid of you!# Kira stood his ground, locking eyes with Hal.

#You should be. You know what I am.# Hal walked toward him with slow deliberation.

#You're not a coordinator!# Kira threw himself forward with an awkward running leap and swung a hard right punch at Hal's face. He connected, if awkwardly, but Hal hardly crumpled up like a Natural might. Instead he wheeled around and retaliated, swinging a hard right and then a left effortlessly into Kira's face. Hal followed up with solid roundhouse kick to the side of Kira's chest. Ribs audibly cracked as Kira hit the floor, rolling back a few meters. Hal stalked after him, intending to finish things.

#I told you this wouldn't work! You need to get out of here!# Al tried to shout at him.

Kira didn't respond, instead pushing himself up off the floor. With a surge of strength, he swept a low kick at Hal's knee. Hal stumbled, crashing into a wall. He tried put his weight on it so he could stay upright.

Al was growing frantic. #Kira, what's wrong with you? You can't win! What are you trying to prove?#

#Just because he's stronger doesn't mean he can do whatever he wants. We're going to see tomorrow together, Allelujah!#

Al was taken aback. He couldn't exactly think of why, but something about Kira's doggedness reminded him of another place and another time, when someone else had reached out to him with limitless hope and relentless determination.

#Marie...#

Hal whirled, glowering at Al balefully. It gave Kira the opening he needed. He charged forward and spun a high heel kick forward at Hal, catching him at his left temple. Hal went down heavily, crumpling to the floor. It had never occurred to Al to deal with Hal so directly. It amounted to beating his own id into submission and that just didn't make any sense.

Kira regarded the world in terms so concrete that the illogic of beating up a psychic construct never really crossed his mind. He stepped over Hal and ran toward Al, grabbing the man's arm and hauling him into the control room.

The control room's interior was remarkably similar to Kyrios's cockpit console. Kira all put pushed Al down into the main seat, the door sliding shut behind them. Al was entirely bewildered.

#Kira, this won't work-#

#Yes, it will! You just... you just have to go back out there.#

#- I can't! He's not done yet, he won't let me-#

The sound of a fist pounding on the door echoed throughout the small room. #I'M GOING TO TEAR YOUR-#

#See? Kira, get out of here or he's going to kill you!#

#No! You're just hiding behind him. Forget him, he doesn't matter.#

#What do you mean he doesn't matter? Can't you hear him? Look, I can't control him-#

#If you won't, then I will!#

Kira stepped toward the door, which was denting inward to a physically impossible degree. Al's self-image was slowly wearing down the order Kira's presence had imposed. The conflict was still primarily on Kira's terms, though, and Kira had decided that Hal just needed to be locked out.

Kira hefted a massive steel bar up from a pile of assorted debris that existed in one corner of the room, purely because Kira decided that it should be there. He slid it through runners that had not existed a moment previously, effectively barring the door.

The dent in it slowly snapped back into place. Hal screamed in frustration, a sound of rage that vibrated the walls with the force of its anger. After that, there was only silence.

#He's gone?# Al was staggered. #But he can't! He can't be-#

Suddenly the sense of solidity around Al wasn't artificial at all. He really was back in Kyrios's cockpit, breathing heavily. Turn-A's wreckage floated in front of him, pieces of metal slowly drifting off the wrecked torso block. He felt absolutely no sense of Hal within him, not even the shadowy flicker that usually crouched in the back of his mind.

"Kira... what have you done?"

-X-X-X-

As he felt his basic motor functions return, Amuro felt only an overwhelming urge to get his Normal Suit's helmet off. This was a dangerous and stupid thing to do, but the alternative might be vomiting in it and suffering an extremely embarrassing death by asphyxiation. He was just able to suppress his overwhelming sense of sickness as he gulped air in from the pressurized cockpit. He'd never had a Newtype reaction so strong or so negative before. He wasn't sure, but though his nose might be bleeding.

"If you puke in here, you've gotta clean it up." Words flashed onto Hachi's screen, the tempt indicating profound indignation.

Amuro stifled a groan. "Hngh. What's our status, Hachi? How long was I out?"

"Not long, but it doesn't matter." Hachi flashed diagrams showing the extent of Turn-A's structural damage over the cockpit panorama. "We're down for the count."

"What? No... no, Haman's still out there! We have to do something," He began shuffling through diagnostic interfaces he just barely understood, searching for some sign that Turn-A could somehow keep going.

Hachi's screen turned into a scrolling blur of systemic damage percentages, many well over 60%. "There's nothing to work with! Weapons and structural integrity are shot. The I-Field's barely intact. This is Turn-A's limit."

"No... dammit, no! Don't tell me I have sit here and watch everyone die," Amuro was too drained to shout, his voice impassioned yet hoarse. Suppressed hurts began to rise to the surface, raw and festering. "There's still the locked sub-systems! If we could just get into them, there might be something-"

"It'd take years to get into the locked sub-systems. I know, it sucks, but-" Hachi's text flash stopped abruptly, his screen briefly going blank.

"Hachi?" Amuro wondered if Turn-A was so damaged, its operating system was beginning to crash.

Text began to pour over Hachi's screen, much too quickly for even Amuro to read. The cascade spilled out of the confines of Hachi's screen and onto every display surface in Turn-A's cockpit. ACCESS GRANTED repeated itself, thousands of times over, bathing the cockpit in red.

"- Hachi? What did you do?"

Periods ran in a rapid horizontal crawl across Hachi's screen, forming a wall of ellipses. For a moment, the screen went blank, before words finally reappeared upon it again.

"Turn-A says he's glad you haven't changed."

-X-X-X-

Heero squinted at the display screen that monitored the battlefield. In the space of a minute, the Turn-A's light dot had gone from damaged yellow back to standard green. It made no sense. Were the ship's sensors malfunctioning? He turned to go to the nearest console and try to diagnose the problem, unfamiliar technology or not.

What stopped Heero was the look he saw in Domon's eyes as he turned around. Those weren't the eyes of a man looking at a malfunction, but instead at something familiar, comprehensible, yet terrible.

"What does it mean?" Heero asked him.

Domon was surprised by the younger man's bluntness. "It's... it's nothing. It has to be a coincidence..."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Nothing here is a coincidence."

"... on my world, the power of self-regeneration is possessed by only one Mobile Suit." Domon's voice was grave. "An evil Mobile Suit, one that would destroy the world!"

Heero appeared calm, but his senses screamed at him in alarm. The Epyon System's vision of a ruined world burned in his memory. "Tell me about it. Quickly."

-X-X-X-

Anavel Gato was prepared to die, but once again, death did not come for him when he ready. The kick Neros Gundam prepared for him was never unleashed. What distracted Gato was an incredible light, glittering with the colors of the rainbow. What seized Michelo's attention, though, was the sudden collapse of the strong killing intent he once felt from Al. When he whirled his robot around to see what had happened, he saw the light, too.

Where Turn-A had been drifting wreckage moments before, a cocoon of radiance now engulfed its body. It wasn't hard to see the incredible thing that was happening within. Turn-A was regenerating, its shattered body becoming whole. It was as if it was being meticulously restored in an invisible factory, shattered joints rejoining and pitted armor replaning itself smooth. Before the eyes of the gathered pilots, Turn-A was completely restored.

"What? What the hell? That's cheating!" Michelo bellowed in outrage.

Haman felt numb with shock, and a growing sense of terror. A self-repairing mobile suit? Her plans suddenly fell to nothing. How could stop such a thing? Hitting the cockpit? But where was the cockpit?

From Shiro's vantage point, in the Ball held gently in Freedom's hand, the multicolored light cast by Turn-A's halo was so brilliant as to be blinding. "Oh, man! It repairs itself?"

Gato's thoughts were along the same lines. "An immortal White Devil!"

Michelo struck first, rushing at Turn-A and loosing its charged Silver Legs scythe kick at the restored Turn-A. While the machine had always been fast, it now moved with an agility that seemed impossible even to a Gundam Fighter, spinning away so deftly that it wasn't even grazed by the enormous beam emission. Turn-A's thrusters flared, and it began to speed away as if Neros was of no further consequence.

"Don't you ignore me, soldier boy! Don't you dare ignore me!" Michelo screamed.

His focus on Turn-A left Michelo flat-footed for what came next. He never felt the attack coming, because no killing intent was attached to it. Instead, he saw only his cockpit erupting damage warnings, and a pain so intense that overwhelmed his senses and motor control. Blind and deafened, Michelo crumpled to his gyroscopically stabilized cockpit's floor, screaming.

In a brilliant flash of color, Freedom had turned a full weapons burst upon Neros Gundam while it was distracted. With a series of pin-points shots, the assault simultaneously blew both arms, both legs, and the head off of Neros Gundam. Kira had no way of knowing exactly why his "mercy shot" was so agonizing to Michelo, but he could hear the man screaming over comms.

Knowing that he was Flay's murderer was enough to harden even Kira's heart. Freedom surged forward, the Ball already cast aside. "I don't want to kill anyone... not even you. But that doesn't mean you deserve to live!" Kira cried.

With a swift kick, Freedom sent Neros's cockpit block spiraling upwards at the bulk of the Dogos Gear as it passed overhead. The inert hunk of machinery smashed through the carrier's external armor and became lodged there, condemning Michelo a slow and fiery death in re-entry. To Kira, it only seemed fair, and Shin couldn't help but smile a little despite himself.

"This is your last chance to surrender, Haman Karn!" Amuro barked over comms.

Haman could see the Turn-A barreling toward her like an iridescent comet and hear the coldness in its pilot's voice. Kyrios was inert, its pilot beyond her reach. She had no other allies left. Had she come so far for it to end this way?

"No... no, no!" she screamed. Her aura surged. In a final spasm of defiance, the Qubeley's bits finally broke free of the influence of the Maga no Ikutachi's energy-draining field. "I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!"

"- the bits!" They couldn't damage Turn-A, but what about the other units? He couldn't tell if the locked sub-systems Turn-A had opened gave him a way of protecting the others, and he couldn't kill Haman before she opened fire. Could he try to shoot them down? It was an impossible feat for a UC Mobile Suit, but right now Turn-A's joints were loosened to a level of perfect responsiveness that exceeded even the psychoframe.

"Let me take care of it!" Kira said over comms. "I can keep everyone safe while you stop Haman!"

"I can support him with Kyrios's GN Field," Al added.

That startled Amuro a bit. "Kyrios's pilot?"

"To hell with Haman. I'm siding with Kira, and he's apparently with you."

Amuro felt no split-second twinge of disaster at the offer from the two defecting pilots. "Thank you. Amuro out."

Haman pushed her bits forward, spiraling them around Turn-A as it charged toward her. Their intricate pattern of fire became no more than a burning corona that melted off of Turn-A's impenetrable I-Field. In bitter spite, she threw her bits wider, seeking to rain fire down on the vulnerable and immobilized units that clustered near Freedom and Kyrios.

This effort, too, was in vain. Freedom's pilot was possessed of ungodly accuracy with his machine's long-range weapons. One by one, she lost her bits to his counter-fire. While Kyrios's GN Field couldn't shrug off beam fire as completely as Turn-A's I-Field, the orange machine's swift MA mode was still able to absorb the few shots that got through Freedom's shield of counter-fire.

Haman could feel Amuro's reaching out for her, trying to lock a shot on with Turn-A's massive chest cannon. She was forced into evasive maneuvers, falling back and then breaking into a rout as she fled from her foes. She was forced back toward the Granshirio's bulk, as the Dogos Gear neared it for impact. She could feel the relentlessness of gravity before her. There was no way out. Either Turn-A would slay her, or she'd burn in the gravity well beneath her.

She tried to cut through the narrowing space between the Dogos Gear and the Granshiro, to use the Dogos Gear's bulk as a shield. A burst from Turn-A's cannon ripped through the carrier behind her, spraying debris in her direction. She'd be dead once Turn-A wheeled into the space she was in, she was as certain of it as if it had already happened.

In the few seconds her awareness bought her before the end, a sense of burning frustration erupted in her. It suffused her spirit, and erupted into a Psychic Hit directed at the formless source of her ire.

"Beyonder!" she screamed. "Beyonder, you have wronged me! You have set an immortal Mobile Suit against me, but denied me a weapon of equal strength! Your game is invalid, its outcome meaningless, unless you grant me an equal power!"

Turn-A stumbled a bit as it rounded into the narrowing space the Qubeley occupied. For the fraction of a second, it was like his mind had run into wall. A power that seemed beyond comprehension flooded his senses. Haman Karn had called out to the Beyonder... and it seemed the Beyonder would see fit to answer her.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

The idea that Turn-A was blocking access to its crazier abilities is not explicitly stated in the TV show, but I always felt something like that had to be going on. Turn-A spends quite a lot of its series run behaving like a normal (if strong) Mobile Suit. It only becomes something extraordinary later on, when the threat it faces has escalated.

The idea of Turn-A's artificial intelligence I feel is handled in a similar way. It's never stated outright, but given the machine's behavior, it would have to be directed at points by some sort of AI with actual decision-making ability.

Finally, the idea that the Turn-A is the former RX-78 isn't, I believe, stated outright in the TV series (or if it is, I don't remember it anymore). I believe this idea comes from promotional materials published while Turn-A was airing, and later became a major piece of errata for the series.

As for the idea of contacting the Beyonder (with psychic power or otherwise)... well, let's just say that something similar goes down during Secret Wars, and I thought this story really ought to have a resourceful character try something similar.

-X-X-X-

I wrote a lot of this chapter while listening to JAM Project's eighth album, Going. Bombast was the order of the day here.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- GRANSHIRIO Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Neros Gundam (damaged)

Haman Karn / Qubeley

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	57. Chapter 57

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Haman Karn cried out for power. The Beyonder's answer pushes the Gundam War to the threshold of ultimate horror.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The moment of painfully intense pressure passed, quickly. Once Amuro could grasp his surroundings again, he instinctively juked Turn-A backwards. The Dogos Gear's hulk was finally beginning to impact the Granshirio, its launch ramps crumpling against the Granshirio's rupturing hull. Both of the massive carriers were already being affected by the inexorable pull of the gravity well, their trajectories decaying slowly toward the Earth below them.

For a moment, Amuro wondered if anything had come of Haman's psychic appeal to the Beyonder. He saw no powerful new units to rescue her, and her Qubeley was still trapped with its back against the two crashing carriers. A twinge of pressure made him realize he was quite wrong. He had the sudden impression of something approaching from behind Turn-A, around eight o'clock according to instruments. Even his impression of what was approaching seemed somehow incomplete.

"Hachi, what's the reinforcement coming in on our eight?"

"As far as Turn-A can tell right now, it's a meteorite," Hachi flashed. "And it wasn't there a minute ago, so it's probably bad news."

"A meteorite?" For a moment, Amuro wondered if he should try to destroy it, or resume pursuing Haman. Put in those terms, though, the correct decision seemed obvious. If he could eliminate Haman now, then what was in the meteorite might not matter.

The meteorite was heading toward the colliding hulks of the Granshirio and Dogos Gear, which were slowly entwining to form one great twisted mass of grey-black metal. Haman was stunned from her brief contact with the Beyonder, and baffled at the apparent answer to her request. Still, she was determined to hold out to the bitter end.

Turn-A flared its thrusters and soared forward, closing rapidly on the Qubeley. "You've gotten your answer from the Beyonder, and it's nothing! Surrender or die, Haman Karn! I'd rather not kill you, but I will if it means putting an end to this!"

"To hell with you, Amuro Ray! If you can't kill me, you don't deserve to win the Gundam War!"

"Haman, be reasonable! You can't run and you can't win!"

The Qubeley its palm-mounted beam cannons against the hull of the crumpling Granshirio. At such close range, the weapons all but vaporized a huge gash in the ship's already-fractured armor. "I'll take my chances with re-entry!" With that, the Qubeley disappeared into the ship's quaking hulk.

Amuro stared. "She's... she's insane! Hachi, what's the trajectory on that meteorite?"

"It's going to hit the wreckage of the ships dead-on. You could probably just sit back and let it take care of the Qubeley for you, at this rate," Hachi flashed. "There's no way a machine of that spec is going to survive all that, and re-entry to boot."

"What about Turn-A?"

"No problem," Hachi said. "Turn-A could even get you through re-entry."

"Then let's finish this!" Turn-A's chest cannon flared, ripping the hole in the Granshirio's armor even wider. The white machine then dived in, seeking the Qubeley. As much as Amuro hated the idea of playing executioner, the cost of letting Haman Karn get away this time would be far too high.

-X-X-X-

The fireballs that erupted as the Dogos Gear smashed into the Granshirio were visible from the site where the surviving machines affiliated with the Izumo gathered.

"If Amuro can shoot down Haman, this is all over, right?" Kira asked. His voice was nervous. A woman like Haman wouldn't die easily.

Gato scowled. "If. Commander Karn has survived incredible odds before."

"And that's how we came to be involved in all this, isn't it?" Al's voice was disgusted. "We showed up to greet the last wave's round of stragglers, and fought bravely, since we had no idea what was going on."

"More or less. Mister Asuka, can you tell how Miss Loussier is doing?"

"I think she passed out?" Shin said. "Her lifesigns seem stable, but she's not answering me."

Rondo Mina's voice chimed in next. Her Gold Frame was heading for their location, uncloaked. "Good. We should look into what causes these fits of hers, they're terribly inconvenient."

"Lady Rondo," Gato greeted her.

"Lieutenant Gato. I can't help but notice that we've got the Freedom and its orange ally registered as friendlies now."

"Yeah, I... I'm really sorry we ended up fighting. If we'd understood each other better..."

"Kira! Don't apologize on a battlefield," Al said. "We made our mistakes, and we'll just have to pay for them."

"Kira? Then it's really Kira Yamato in there? The hero of Jachin Due, the so-called Ultimate Coordinator?" Rondo's eyes lit up with interest, though it did not sound entirely friendly.

Kira stammered. "I, uh... y-yeah, I guess, but I'm not really... y'know, not really like that..."

"Hey, we've got more friendlies incoming," Shin interrupted, largely so Kira would stop talking and he would stop feeling the urge to punch his teeth out.

"Yeah! Look who I found!" Shiro sounded quite pleased with himself over comms. His Ball, with its shortened tether line, was helping to haul the disabled Gundam X back toward the carrier. The Gelgoog, its sensors shot, was using its own thrusters to help push the Gundam X forward.

"Commander Ridden!" Gato couldn't disguise the happiness in his voice. "And... Mister Garrod, I believe it was? So that would mean..."

"I can confirm the Gundam NT-1 and Airmaster Burst destroyed, both pilots lost," Johnny said. His voice was heavy with regret. "They paid for our lives."

"So where the hell do you get off hanging out with the Izumo forces, Al?" It was Garrod's voice, raw with grief and anger. "You left Witz to die and you tried to kill me, you don't deserve to be here!"

"Garrod! It's not fair to accuse Al like that," Kira exclaimed. "Treize lied to all of us-"

"Kira, please. Don't, just don't," Al spoke again, his voice quieter.

"Boys, this can wait until we're back at the ship, or better yet, until after this stupid war game is over," Rondo said.

"Yeah, don't argue! Instead, let's talk about how happy you are that my awesome Ball swooped in and saved everyone's butts!" Shiro was grinning so widely you could hear it in his voice. While the Granshirio defectors found the exchange confusing, a wave of helpless laughter spread through the Izumo pilots.

In the distance, a particularly large explosion sent a great plume of burning debris shooting up into the darkness of space. From the vantage point of the observing Mobile Suits, it merely looked like a particularly large explosion, perhaps the result of the carrier wreckage superheating as re-entry began in earnest.

-X-X-X-

Aboard the Izumo, though, it was clear that a very large something had materialized out of thin air, then proceeded to smash into the flaming mess created by the Dogos Gear's collision with the Granshirio. Both the damaged Neros Gundam and the still-active Qubeley were active within the massive carrier collision, as was the newly resurrected Turn-A Gundam. Heero's brows furrowed as he stared at the monitor screen. Something about this deeply unsettled him.

Domon's finger stabbed at the mysterious new signature. "That! What's that thing?"

"A meteorite, according to instruments. It's too big to be anything else."

"Are you sure? How closely did your computers examine it?"

Heero felt inclined to take Domon's paranoia seriously. The instruments ran a second and third sweep of the huge object, gathering more data. The process was slow, despite the Izumo's quantum computers.

The 'object' indicator on the instrument screen suddenly transformed into the indicator for a Mobile Weapon, one that seemed unimaginably large to Heero's reckoning. Its abilities were unknown, but it did not register as damaged when it plowed into the dying carriers.

"Trace its trajectory," Domon said. His voice was quiet, almost hoarse.

Heero had no idea what the point of that would be, but somehow it seemed urgent that he do so. The Izumo's computers cheerfully predicted a possible course that cut through what was, to Heero, an empty sector of space.

Domon, though, clearly recognized the coordinates. His face became a mask of rage, fists clenching. "Damn you, Beyonder! You have no right! You have no right!" Domon's voice rose, building into a furious roar.

It was a horrible synchronicity. Heero had heard just enough to understand what the Beyonder had just inflicted upon them. "... the Devil Gundam."

-X-X-X-

Amuro preferred to fight with precision, but in the interior of the crashing ships, it was impossible. He was using repeated bursts of Turn-A's chest cannon to smash a corridor through the compacting metal. Turn-A's sensors registered the meteor's impact with the compacting remains of the two ships, but Amuro thought little of it.

Haman would have to do the same with far less powerful weapons, so he felt he'd have to run into her sooner or later, or catch her in a beam shot. Newtype evasion would be less effective in such tight and chaotic quarters, provided he could get to her before she cut her way into a hangar area. Even if she did make it into one, the heat of re-entry would cripple her sooner or later.

A burst of fire surged past the Turn-A, engulfing it. The cannon had ripped open an oxygen-rich area, igniting the corridor he'd torn open around him. Hydrogen and helium from the exosphere was beginning to permeate the thoroughly compromised hulls of the two ships, making the air mixture left behind more combustible. This effect would grow much worse as the ships plunged lower and the atmosphere grew thicker.

The hangar areas of the two ships had merged with each other during the crash, creating a great gap in the ship's center. The remaining air was beginning to burn, sheets of flame running along the space's edges. The fire was the only source of light besides Turn-A's own illumination. Turn-A began to scan, carefully, as Amuro reached out with his mind as much as he dared.

The slash of pressure he felt from the flaming sea beneath Turn-A was welcome, until he realized it wasn't Haman. Something scuttled along the ground, slithering like an awkward serpent. It hurled itself upward at Turn-A, vulcan fire exploding upward at the machine's thighs. Amuro juked aside, the machine no more than scratched.

Turn-A's sensors and external cameras focused on the thing as it toppled down to the hangar area's flame-choked floor. It was a misshapen Mobile Suit, forearms and lower legs torn asunder. Connection cables dangled grotesquely from empty joint sockets.

Somehow, the Mobile Suit pushed itself upward, turning its Gundam head and glowing yellow eyes upward at Turn-A. Amuro's breath caught in his throat. He was looking at a thing that should not exist, a thing he had seen destroyed.

"Neros Gundam-!"

Laughter poured in over his open comms. It was the empty cackling of a broken mind. Amuro remembered when his father had begun to laugh that way, a memory that was like a cold knife in his gut.

"... Rome... Rome is burning..." Michelo struggled to speak through his own laughter. The cables that dangles from Neros's empty joints were spiraling downward, growing. The machine's armor began to extend. Stumps of wrists and ankles formed. Neros tried to rise on them, even as they grew back into place. "Nero fiddles, and Rome burns!"

Turn-A's computers began to scream in warning. "Amuro, something's wrong!" Hachi flashed. "Turn-A's detecting a rival self-repair system active in that thing!"

"A r-rival..." Amuro could barely think. His intuition was screaming at him to flee, but his will to end the Gundam War refused to permit retreat. He tried to push forward, but his hands felt numb upon the control.

Another onrush of gases erupted into a fireball. Neros's shell was blackened from heat, red armor sluggishly growing back to replace the damage. It occurred to Amuro that if the Mobile Trace System was still functional, it must be transmitting near-constant pain signals to Michelo's neural systems, forcing the Gundam Fighter to feel himself burned alive again and again.

The fireball briefly illuminated the cavernous melding of hangars. Some sort of gas, thick and green, was flooding out from damaged tanks into the lower section of the room. Above, Amuro caught a glimpse of incalculably enormous yellow eyes gazing down at him from above, where the "meteor" had torn through layers of hull and working space. It was no meteor, but an enormous Gundam head, staring down at him in surreal hatred.

Was his mind playing tricks on him? Did that awful thing have a pressure of its own? Sometimes, the sea of flames that crawled along the sides of the hanger seemed to be tinged black... was that just the poor visibility?

The brief illumination faded, plunging the hangar area back into darkness. Haman's voice laughed at him, her Qubeley's monoeye igniting. Her laugh was empty, too. "So good of you to join us, Captain! I'd invite you to a fight on equal terms... but the Beyonder has given me a power surpassing yours!"

"Haman, what have you done? What's happened to Michelo?"

Haman ignored him. It was not clear to who she spoke, or if she was simply narrating some profound inner ecstacy. "Self-repairing, self-replicating, self-evolving... a perfect lifeform, seeking the perfect ruler! Behold, the true ultimate Gundam, the Devil Gundam!"

"Amuro, she's not kidding!" Hachi flashed. "Devil Gundam's systems are trying to assimilate what's left of the carriers!"

The Qubeley stepped forward, gesturing theatrically forward with one hand as Amuro had seen Haman do countless times. "Since you have been so gracious about giving me second chances, Amuro Ray, let me extend one to you. Join us in worship of Devil Gundam, and be a King of Heaven!"

The metal sides of the ship seemed to throb and heave, great spiked cables undulating. One whipped toward Turn-A's forearm, only to be batted away at the last moment by its regenerated tower shield. The terrible horror that gripped Amuro eased, and suddenly he felt he could move again.

"Hachi, tell me there's something we can do! Can we use one of the new systems?"

There was something grim in the way Hachi's text appeared. "You have to get out of here, now. Turn-A's freaking out. If that thing tries to assimilate him, it'll trigger his ultimate sanction!"

"- ultimate sanction? Hachi, that sounds like a solution, not a problem!" Regardless, Turn-A began to juke backwards down the corridors it'd shot open, beam rifle in hand. Tentacle-like cables were erupting from the sides of the walls, but not any faster than Amuro could shoot them down.

"You don't understand! The Moonlight Butterfly's completely uncontrollable once it's active! It won't just attack Devil Gundam, it'll attack everything in the area!"

"Moonlight what? Hachi, what the hell are you talking about?"

It was not Hachi that responded, but Turn-A itself. In frantic burst of information, all of its audiovisual memories of the Moonlight Butterfly's effects poured over the cockpit panorama in a rapid-fire burst of despair. Amuro had seen a world end once through DOME's eyes, and yet what he saw in those seconds held a terror that was entirely fresh and absolute.

All men think themselves brave, but for every man, there is a point at which he will prove himself a coward. This was Amuro Ray's. All thoughts of victory and ending the Gundam War fled his mind, instantly. A decade of battlefield experience evaporated into nothing. His only thought was to retreat, to escape, as much from the Moonlight Butterfly as the Devil Gundam.

-X-X-X-

As you might surmise from this chapter, Devil Gundam is one of the major threats faced in Mobile Fighter G Gundam. I am going to be coy about who the pilot is, but fans shouldn't have a hard time figuring it out.

It was really interesting reading everyone's interpretations of the last chapter, and the guesses about what might come next were quite good. A few were also very unexpected, and have given me things to think about in the future.

The guess that the story is winding down a few chapters ago also correct, but as I'm sure you all can see, we've got one story arc left to go and plenty of complications left to deal with.

-X-X-X-

So I kinda got into Homestuck recently, and the music from volumes 7 and 8 of the official soundtrack to that was a really good fit for this chapter.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley (Commander)

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	58. Chapter 58

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Can the Devil Gundam be destroyed before it lands on Earth? Is its destruction worth paying the Moonlight Butterfly's terrible price?

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"Attention, Izumo units. The Izumo is preparing to fire Lohengrins at the transmitted coordinates." Heero's voice cut through comms like a knife. The coordinates the Izumo was transmitting would have it firing right through the area where the battered Mobile Suits were now gathered.

Rondo's anger was immediate. "What? What is the meaning of this? Why do you need to take potshots at the Granshirio? The battle's over, it'll break apart in re-entry!"

"The battle is not over, Rondo Mina Sahaku!" Domon had gotten on the line, his voice painfully loud. "The Beyonder has damned us!"

"The Devil Gundam is aboard the Granshirio," Heero's tone was firm, permitting no argument. "It will survive re-entry. I'm going to shoot it down. Get out of the way if you want to live."

"Devil Gundam?" Garrod asked.

"Pfeh. Aren't they all?" Gato said.

"When you understand what it is, you'll understand that we had to do this!" Domon shouted.

"Dammit!" Johnny cursed. The situation seemed all too clear to him. "The Beyonder's reinforced Haman Karn, and with some sort of Gundam Fighter! Epyon's pilot is right, an artillery assault is completely justified."

"If we all work together, we could haul the damaged units aside without losing too much time-" Shiro began.

"Wait, what about Amuro?" Shin asked. "We just sent him into the Granshirio, we can't fire on him!"

"What about his machine's GN Field? Between that and the self-repair system, I doubt even cannon fire would pose a real threat," Al said.

"No, Shin's right," Kira said. "No matter how strong it is, a conventional beam barrier won't have any affect on a Lohengrin's positron stream, and no form of matter can tolerate direct contact with antimatter."

"Antimatter?" Al sounded mystified.

"Antimatter. Positrons are the natural antiparticle counterpart of electrons, generated through radioactive decay." For once, Rondo didn't mind having to explain things to others who might be unfamiliar with Cosmic Era technology. "A Lohengrin cannon fires a stream of positrons at its target. When the positrons contact the electrons in ordinary matter, it causes a massive detonation."

"It's not a clean explosion, either," Kira added. "The energy emitted by the chain reaction is going to contain extremely high levels of gamma radiation. Even if Turn-A survived a direct hit, the cockpit would need to be shielded against high-intensity radiation bursts, or..."

Shiro was no science major, but that was easy enough to understand. "... he'd cook in his own machine... or die of radiation poisoning!"

"We've had a weapon like that all this time? That's as bad as a nuclear warhead!" Gato said.

"It sounds worse than the Satellite Cannon..." Garrod added.

"What happens if you fire a Lohengrin in atmosphere, or at a colony?" Johnny asked.

"Exactly what you're imagining. Terrible things," Rondo said. "Izumo, we cannot take Turn-A's survival for granted. Give us time to confirm that Captain Ray is out of the line of fire."

"Roger." Heero's reply was monotone, but it seemed like he understood the situation. "Be quick. We have about five minutes until the Granshirio is out of range."

"Who has the best comms range?" Shin asked.

"It'll be impossible to determine quickly," Johnny said. "There's too much variation in the tech bases and tech levels we're using."

"- then let's all hail him!" Shiro said. "That way anybody who can get through will get through."

"There's no other choice," Domon said. His emotions were a surging knot of fear, anger, and shame. "Make Turn-A hear your call, soldiers!"

-X-X-X-

Escaping the hulk of wreckage infested by Devil Gundam was, for Turn-A, no simple matter of retracing its steps. The irregular wreckage had begun to spin as it hit the upper layers of the atmosphere. A course that wasn't carefully plotted would simply throw Turn-A down to Earth. The path Turn-A had torn into the wreckage's heart had closed enough that it could no longer serve as a useful landmark, thanks to the Devil Gundam.

Amuro could have coped with these things in a clear state of mind, but now he was more terrified than he had been in years, perhaps more terrified than he'd ever been in his life. Now that Turn-A's nanite sub-systems were fully activated, the machine would use them to defend itself against possible infestation. The nanites would not discriminate between friend and foe.

That was the terror of the Moonlight Butterfly: complete annihilation of every threat within range, with mercy an impossibility. No wonder Turn-A had hid its full power for so long, even permitting itself to be damaged rather than directly reveal it. It feared itself, as DOME had, as any intelligent being with such a power would. That, too, was terrifying: that Turn-A was as self-aware, in its own way, as any human.

Amuro had convinced Turn-A to awaken itself, so if the Moonlight Butterfly activated, it would be entirely his fault. The guilt, even as a possibility, was distracting. For now, he could merely use Turn-A to tread water, using regular bursts of its chest cannon and beam rifle to force back Devil Gundam's surging cables. There was still a sense that the space the machine was in was slowly constricting, though. No resistance could last forever.

In that small dark place, Turn-A's panorama suddenly erupted with light. Hails, over half a dozen of them, came through all at once. Most were audio-only at this range, but a few carried grainy video signals.

"Captain!"

"Amuro!"

"Get out of there, man!"

"- we're going to fire on it-"

"The Devil Gundam will be defeated!"

"You're not an acceptable loss!"

Turn-A's cannon roared, set to wide bore. A wall of writhing cables were consumed in an instant. "Everyone, I-" Amuro wasn't sure what to say. "-I don't think I can make it-"

"Dude! What the hell!" Amuro couldn't recognize the young pilot's voice at all, or his face. "You're a Newtype! Where do you get off trying to leave us high and dry?"

Amuro felt shamed, for reasons he would never be able to articulate. "- I can't get any clear sensor readings, I can't plot a course-"

"That's right, the rotational torsion-"

"-but he's a Newtype! We've still got a chance!" Kira's voice, this time.

"Kira! Where you are going?"

Amuro instantly understood what Kira meant to do. It would work, if he and Turn-A could hold out just a little bit longer. Turn-A let fire with all of its ranged weapons, obliterating the fog of terror Devil Gundam had wrapped around it.

-X-X-X-

Hi-MAT system engaged, Freedom moved toward the flaming wreck of the Granshirio, cutting a blue arc through the space above Earth's exosphere. The wreck was gaining speed, gravity's grip upon it growing tighter. Kira knew he'd have to come as close to the edge of the gravity well as he could dare. His mind had to cut through the fog of fire and confusion, and give Amuro a fixed point he could use to orient himself.

The wreckage's outer hull was wracked by a new explosion. The light of a beam cannon ripped through it, streaming smoke. Turn-A's white body surged through the haze, heading in a perfectly straight line toward Freedom. A corona of heat built around Turn-A as it tried to generate enough force to break free of Earth's gravity well.

A lesser machine would've begun to suffer irreparable heat damage at that point, but Turn-A had already focused its heat shielding systems on its cockpit. Turn-A's own multicolored aura surged beneath the corona, replacing layers of outer armor as they began to burn away. It was a slow, terrible struggle of the sort usually only attempted by great carriers, driven by massive engines. Turn-A's reactor was impossibly sophisticated, its thrusters magnificently efficient, but this would push it to its limits.

Kira's reaction was typically impulsive. Freedom dived to meet Turn-A, hand outstretched. Turn-A flung its shield aside to take hold of Freedom's hand, the Phase Shift armor offering proof against the terrible heat that suffered Turn-A's body. The great blue machine's thrusters and verniers flared, trying to add its own force to Turn-A's upward climb.

For a moment, it seemed that it might not work. Freedom seemed to descend, then felt an outside force beginning to pull upwards on it. Kyrios had seized Freedom under one arm, GN Drive blanketing the stars with yellow-green particles as it spun furiously.

"Kira, you really need to start thinking these things through..." Al's voice was strained, as if he pulling physically himself. It was almost enough; the chain of Mobile Suits was slowly beginning to rise again.

A final tug, and the three machines broke free of the gravity well entirely. Gato's one-armed Marasai, useless for fighting, and the damaged Ball had arrived just in time to provide the last of the necessary force. Turn-A's body was rapidly losing its redness, as the self-repair system began to direct cooling systems outward and replaced overheated armor layers.

"Allied units are confirmed clear. Firing Lohengrin," Heero announced.

Beneath the assembled mobile suits, the flickering light of the positron cannons lanced out and speared the flaming ball of wreckage to its very core. There wouldn't be a second shot; the object had fallen too deeply into the atmosphere, and picked up too much speed. It would fall in pieces, though. Even at the edge of an unfamiliar machine's possible range, Heero's targeting was perfect.

"Is that it?" Shiro asked. "Did we get the Devil Gundam thing?"

"By all rights, nothing should survive that trip through the atmosphere, let alone a positron beam," Gato said.

"There's no way to tell if the shot was dead-on. We'll just have to wait it out," Rondo said. "Everything's fine on this end, the Izumo's coming around to pick us up now."

"Amuro? Are you okay?" Kira asked.

Amuro's normal suit was a pool of his own sweat. Despite the shielding, the cockpit interior's temperature had risen to very uncomfortable levels. "... no, but... I'll live. Let's get back to the ship."

-X-X-X-

The version of Europe that existed on the Beyonder's patchwork Earth was ordinarily tranquil, the surviving urban areas heavily depopulated and much of the countryside deserted. The enormous shards of wreckage that contained the Devil Gundam smashed into the foothills of the Alps, vaporizing much of a forest and kicking up an enormous impact crater. The heat set the trees ablaze for miles around and glowed through the night sky.

Most humans who observed the phenomenon fled, taking it for an ill omen or the beginning of some terrible bombardment from space. For a day and the better part of the next, the wreckage was silent. Only after a long period of recuperation, during the dead of night, did the Devil Gundam recover enough power to awaken itself. The heat of re-entry and the energy burst from the Izumo's Lohengrin fire had torn away most of the mass it had assimilated from the wrecked carriers.

Now the Devil Gundam's form took the surreal shape of an enormous Gundam head, thirty or forty meters across. From the crown of the enormous Gundam head sprouted a thick yellow metal structure, a mimicry of a spinal column. It grew upward into a torso that approximated a Gundam's usual size, with a blue cockpit block and enormous red shoulders. Devil Gundam's torso hunched forward, the rest of its distorted body lacking the strength to prop up its makeshift spine.

Only after the Devil Gundam had the strength to revive itself could it begin to awaken its servants. The infested Qubeley and Neros Gundam had survived the trip through the atmosphere, thanks to Devil Gundam's gift of self-regeneration. It was nearly the morning of the third day before Haman and Michelo could begin to regain consciousness, their machines restored to an operable state.

"We survived," Michelo said.

"And we are not alone," Haman said.

Neros kicked an opening in the great metal fragment that had carried it and the Qubeley back down to Earth. In the half-light of approaching dawn, they saw an unfamiliar third machine standing before the Devil Gundam, atop a twisted spire of vine-like cables and assimilated scraps of wreckage. It was roughly the size and shape of a typical Mobile Suit, its grey-and-white body was starkly visible against the Devil Gundam's blood-red lower head.

"A Gouf?" Haman wondered aloud.

"Yeah, looks pretty goofy to me," Michelo sniggered.

The white machine's head was crowned by a great fin, reminiscent of a command antenna, and its head was mono-eyed. A thick buckler of some sort covered one arm, its only other distinguishing feature. Although Haman and Michelo were not broadcasting to the new machine, it somehow seemed to know they were there. The head tilted back on one shoulder, mono-eye sweeping in their direction.

Haman's eyes widened. She could feel the new pilot's presence now, very clearly. "A Newtype..."

Michelo opened comms. "Whose side are you on, new guy? You here to join my gang?"

The white machine's mono-eyed regarded the two for a moment, then turned away. It tilted its head upward, the Devil Gundam itself clearly the object of its pilot's interest. A strange feeling danced at the edge of Haman's consciousness, something that could only be called truly religious reverence.

A faint rumbling sound echoed through the impact crater where Devil Gundam stood. It's body vibrated with tension. The rocks around it cracked from the sudden shift of pressure. Green metal roots twisted there, extending their hold beneath the earth's surface. The white machine betrayed no sign of a fearful pilot.

Michelo repeated himself, betraying his anger. "New guy! Do you know exactly what you're looking at?"

The pilot was male, his voice deep and beautiful to Haman's ears. Perfect, almost. "I know him, and he knows me."

Michelo began to laugh, his pitch growing a little frantic toward the end. It clearly took him some effort to speak. "Good! I like a guy who's quick on the uptake."

It seemed obvious now. This machine and its pilot were already servants of Devil Gundam. Perhaps he had sought it out intentionally, or been sent by the Beyonder. Regardless, he had understood what the Devil Gundam was in its weakness, and gone to it willingly.

"Who are you?" Haman asked.

"In my world, I was called Rau Le Creuset, Commander of ZAFT forces. Here? I will be called a King of Heaven."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED

-X-X-X-

The description of how a Lohengrin should work is based on the best reading I could do about the scientific principles involved. This may disagree with aspects of the various Cosmic Era canons, since C.E. storytelling tended to ignore the science behind its technologies whenever it was convenient or cool-looking. In this case, I think what the Lohengrins should do is considerably more interesting than what they were sometimes depicted doing, so I'm going with a stricter interpretation of their abilities.

Rau at this point was Chekov's Villain, so it was really just a matter of time until he showed up. He's the main antagonist of Gundam SEED.

One of the reviewers asked what the significance of the "Devil" descriptor that's been added to the Qubeley means. For purposes of bookkeeping for this story, a machine becomes a "Devil" variant when it's infected with DG Cells. These machines can regenerate damage (self-regeneration), spread DG Cell infection to other machines (self-replication), and... well, you'll just have to wait and see how the self-evolution works.

-X-X-X-

Unicorn OST 2 was the music du jour for this chapter, which should not be especially surprising.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	59. Chapter 59

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Reinforcements arrive on the Izumo, which must decide how and when it will face the Devil Gundam and its forces on Earth.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Izumo had remained in position since the battle two days ago, awaiting some sign that might help them divine the status of the Gundam War. If reinforcements arrived, then clearly the Devil Gundam, Haman, and Michelo had survived re-entry and the war would continue. If the war was over, then it seemed that the Beyonder would owe them some sort of visit, to deliver on his promise of a reward and safe return.

The mood aboard the ship was tense and uncertain. Domon was in an unimaginably foul mood, speaking to no one. In-fighting was beginning to erupt again, especially among the pilots who had defected to the Izumo from the Granshirio. Rondo retired to her quarters, brooding upon potential plans of action. Johnny took the bridge, retreating into the rhythm of shipboard duties.

Much of the other activity aboard the ship was at a standstill, despite the efforts of a small team to try and catalog issues like MS damage, depleted stores, and unrecognizable objects mixed in with their supplies. Without the benefit of Amuro's peculiarly bookish Newtype abilities, the chaos required crippling amounts of time to sort through.

It was a sobering lesson in how much the Izumo had come to over-rely on a single person. At a time when he was most needed, Amuro was simply in no shape to work. He'd emerged from Turn-A's cockpit unable to walk and still remained in his quarters, presumably sleeping. Without the benefit of a ship's doctor, it was impossible to tell how serious his condition was.

-X-X-X-

For Shin, the Izumo's long wait bordered on unbearable. Training seemed fruitless, with Domon so utterly distracted. He'd retreated to the medical bay where Stellar still slept in her pod.

Pleasantly, he was not alone. Garrod had taken to hanging around with him, and the two had inevitably begun talking about things: their home worlds, their pasts, and the people they'd left behind. Garrod was also full of questions about the Gundam War's events prior to his arrival, which Shin answered as best he could. It passed the time as well as anything would.

Garrod was leaning against a wall, arms crossed as he tried to puzzle things through. "So Stellar's a Category F?"

"Well... no, she's not telepathic. Category F means you're telepathic, right?" Shin asked. He was sitting, and looked no less confused.

"Well, yeah, but I mean more like... she's a crappy version of a coordinator made by Federation bad guys. Right?"

"Remember, it's the Alliance in Cosmic Era. And... I guess, but I don't really like the sound of that..." Shin frowned, good eye narrowing a little. Coming up with a better analogy was difficult at worst. He couldn't exactly liken Steller to a Newtype dolphin, either.

"Still, it seems to me like something pretty similar. That's gotta mean something, right? I mean, it's not like every government is gonna make bootleg super soldiers."

"Well... I dunno, that's kinda what happened. Amuro says the Universal Century has some sort of artificial Newtype, Heero can't be normal, and... isn't one of the other Granshirio guys just flat-out called a super soldier?"

Garrod's good humor drained away, his jaw tightening into a scowl. "Ugh. Man, why you gotta go and bring up Al? Screw that guy, I don't want to talk about him."

Shin couldn't conceal his annoyance with Garrod's sudden fit of pique. "Geez. Why are you so mad at him, anyways? He seems okay to me."

"Look, Treize is dead, so I can't be mad at him over Witz," Garrod's voice was tense, bordering on anger, as he leaned forward. "But Al was a complete toady to Treize every step of the way. Even Heero wised up before he did! So how am I supposed to be not mad at him, huh? He killed the one guy I knew here, and it was sure as heck not a guy who deserved it!"

Shin began to feel a bit ashamed of himself. It was the sort of thing that he of all people had no excuse for taking lightly. "... I... yeah, sorry, I wasn't thinking..."

Garrod slammed back against the wall, clearly still agitated. "Tell me about it. Hey, if it's awkward question time, why are you so pissed off whenever Kira's around? Isn't he the Cosmic Era's perfect super messiah or something?"

"- look, I don't bring up Al and you don't bring up Kira. Deal?" Shin's sudden fit of shame was rapidly subsiding.

It was Garrod's turn to feel ashamed of himself. "... yeah, deal. Man, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a jerk. I'm guess I'm just going stir-crazy."

"... eh, it's okay. I think we all are. I wish something would happen..."

The automatic pneumatic lock on Stellar's sleep pod suddenly hissed open. Garrod's mood brightened immediately. "Oh, dude! You have magic timing!"

Shin grinned, and the momentary spat between friends was forgotten. Gas vented into the room as the sleep pod's hatch rose. Stellar sat up, yawning and stretching. Neither of the boys could think of anything intelligent to say, so they stayed quiet for once. Garrod quietly backed toward the adjacent room that exited out into the hallway, so he wouldn't play the third wheel when what was obviously a pair of star-crossed lovers reunited.

Stellar's face lit up for a moment when she first saw Shin, the beginnings of a smile crossing her lips. But before her happiness could blossom, her eyes grew troubled, and her lip began to tremble.

At first, Shin couldn't understand what was coming over her at all. "What's wrong?" he asked.

When Stellar began to scream, he suddenly realized that the last time she saw him, he'd had two working eyes and a perfect face. He had forgotten what it was like to feel so terrible, so suddenly.

-X-X-X-

Garrod tried to back away from the awkward scene, though he was in a fairly bad position for getting out into the hallway. He stumbled back into the adjacent room in his haste, tripped over something, and nearly toppled over. A steadying hand grabbed hold of his shoulder and righted him, seeming at the last moment.

"What's the problem?"

Garrod found himself staring into a face that was entirely unfamiliar. The speaker was clearly an adult, if not an especially old one, nor one that was particularly tall or physically imposing. His build was slim and features fine, framed by blue-green hair that fell just short of shoulder-length. There was a sense of purpose in his face that was somehow reassuring, and the long white coat he wore was the sort of thing you expected to see in a medical bay.

"Uh," Garrod stammered, his reaction automatic. The implications of the man's presence hadn't quite settled in yet. "Shin's face got kinda jacked up and Stellar hasn't seen it like this before, so..."

"Right," the man said. He strode through the doorway into the room where Stellar's sleep pod was installed.

At the moment, Stellar's face was buried in Shin's chest, and she was alternating between sobs and a shrill wail of grief. Shin was trying, and failing, to comfort her, one hand resting awkwardly on her back.

"Stellar, it's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore..."

"Shin is not okay! Part of his face is missing!" Stellar wailed. "Shin was hurt and Stellar wasn't here to save him!"

The man strode up to the two of them with utmost calm. He tried to get Stellar's attention. "Hey. Hey, everything's going to be alright. I'm a doctor."

The ploy worked. She sat back on her heels and sniffled. "You can help Shin?"

"I'll do my best. I'll need you to let go for a minute so I can look at him, though."

Stellar scooted back, her breathing starting to return to normal. She watched the doctor like a hawk as stepped forward and raised a hand to Shin's chin.

"Look up at me, please. Just a little." Shin obeyed, at the moment simply grateful that Stellar had calmed down. The doctor touched the scarring very lightly, frowning. "This definitely isn't fresh..."

The doctor made a disgusted noise and moved his hand back and forth in front of Shin's empty eye socket. "Whoever worked on you made a real mess. Can you tell when my hand's here?"

"Uh... n-no, not really..."

"Nothing? It doesn't get darker when I do this?" The doctor placed his hand right in front of the empty socked.

"No..."

"Idiots," the doctor grumbled. He pulled out a small flashlight and shone it over the contours of Shin's battered face. "Well, it's not all bad news. This tissue build-up looks hypertrophic to me... laser treatment's going to knock a lot of that out."

Shin was stunned. "I... r-really?"

"You can fix Shin?" Stellar's face lit up at the prospect.

"Well... not the eye, there's no helping that, but I can give you most of your face back, definitely. Tell me, who treated you originally? I'm not sure whoever it was has any business practicing if they can botch a blunt force trauma treatment this badly."

"Uh...I don't really remember. It was back in Von Braun..."

"Von Braun? Are you sure? You can't practice in Von Braun without a license, and it looks like some backwater colony hack got ahold of you..." The doctor paused, furrowing his brows. "... and what do you mean, "back in"? We're in Von Braun now, right?"

"- new guy! He's a new guy!" Garrod blurted out.

"- new guy!" Shin repeated, suddenly grasping the import of the situation.

"Mmm... that's right, Stellar hasn't seen him before..."

"New guy... wait, what's going on here?" The doctor's confidence began to waver. "I didn't... black out or something, did I?"

"Uh, no... well, I don't know, maybe? It's just..." Shin tried to think of how you were supposed to handle this sort of situation. "... it's going to be a lot to take in. You should start by telling us your name, and what year it is."

The doctor seemed to be growing more anxious by the moment. "What? My name is Kamille Bidan, and this is the year UC 0099... isn't it?"

-X-X-X-

"You know, we probably shouldn't be wasting food like this..."

"It's not wasting it!" Kira protested. "They're MREs, they're fine as long as you don't open them."

Al shrugged. "Wasting time, then. Even if he's conscious, I doubt he'll have much of an appetite."

"I know, but... y'know, if he does..." Kira hung his head a little. "... the Captain did a lot for us, and... I know this isn't much, but we should try to do something..."

Al sighed as they came toward the door to Amuro's quarters. "Trust me, I understand. I'm just trying to be realistic. He... Hallelujah, that is... he's nothing if not thorough..."

Kira scowled. "You shouldn't even talk about that. He's gone, he doesn't matter. You're yourself now."

"I have a hard time believing he's gone," Al said. "But even if he is, that doesn't mean his actions stop having consequences. I don't understand why we're reacting to you Newtypes the way we are, but... well, hurting people is Hal's specialty. If he could damage the Captain's mind in a lasting way, he absolutely would."

"Well... we're here, so let's just see, okay?" Kira looked desperate to change the subject. Al sighed, but said no more.

Kira tapped the visitor key on the keypad that secured the door, a gesture he expected to be entirely futile. The first three times they'd swung by, Amuro had simply slept through the chime. This time, they were surprised to hear a familiar, if somewhat tired, voice answer them. "Come in, come in." The door obligingly slid open.

The sight that awaited them was bizarre enough that both young men paused at the threshold of Amuro's room. Amuro had at some point gotten up, dressed, eaten and now floated serenely upside-down, screwdriver in hand. He was working on something that might eventually be a robot, but was now little more than circuit boards and motors. Parts ranging from small screws to a soldering iron to plastic casing pieces floated in the air, entirely filling the air around Amuro's feet.

Amuro stared at them, with the furtive embarrassment of someone who's been caught doing something he'd rather not talk about. Al and Kira stared back him, neither able to figure out what reaction they should have to something like this.

Al recovered first. "... I see you're feeling better."

"Y-yes. I, uh, wasn't expecting anybody..."

"I noticed."

"Should we leave?" Kira asked. He was entirely earnest, which most people in his position probably wouldn't be.

"No, no, I bet you're here because I'm needed for something..." Amuro hooked a duffle bag floating in a hollow beneath his bunk, and began stowing his work.

Kira let the tray float into the hallway and went to help retrieve the riot of floating parts. "Well... probably, but we just wanted to see how you were doing."

"You've been asleep for two days. People were starting to worry you wouldn't wake up." Al sighed, before going to help speed along the effort. "What were you doing, anyway?"

"Well, I... look, do you two have television where you come from? Bad television, where characters mostly always do the same things?"

"That's bad?" Kira asked.

"Yes, but I don't watch much," Al said.

"Right. Well, you've probably seen the scene where the heroine's had a terrible setback of some kind, so she's sitting around her apartment depressed and eating ice cream? It's always ice cream."

"I'll have to take your word for it," Al said.

Kira brightened. "Right, after she's had a break-up or lost her job..."

"Good, good. Well, to cut things short, I'm a depressed heroine right now, and building robots is my ice cream."

Al stared at Amuro. "That is an awful analogy."

"I never claimed to be a genius Newtype author," Amuro laughed. This was his first time meeting Al and, if nothing else, he appreciated the young man's dry wit.

"What do you have to be depressed about?" Kira asked. "I mean... well, there's Devil Gundam, but then there everything you did with Turn-A..."

"Turn-A..." Amuro's expression darkened. "There's a lot about Turn-A I need to tell everyone, and I... I just don't know where to start, it's too much. I know I can't keep it a secret, I've seen how that turns out. Knowing what's right and knowing how to do it are two different things, though."

Al nodded. This, at least, was behavior that made sense to him."Is there anything we could do to help?"

"No... no, I appreciate it, but I don't think so. I'm going to talk to Johnny about it, he has a better feel for these things than I do."

"So... I don't mean to bother you if you're already feeling bad, Amuro, but there was something I wanted to ask you... you know, once you were feeling better..." Kira's voice was a bit shaky.

"So you did have an ulterior motive, after all..." Al said.

"Al," Kira grumbled.

"Ask away," Amuro said.

"I wanted to ask about... um, about the Newtype stuff that happened at the battle? It seems like that's kind of normal for you..."

"It's not exactly normal, but... well, it tends to happen when Newtypes are on the field together. It was probably disorienting, I can't imagine you'd been through something like that before..."

"Well... that's not true. Once, there was just once... when I fought a particular person..."

"What happened to him?"

"... he's dead now."

"I see. So you're not the first for the Cosmic Era..."

"I guess not, but... what does it mean?" Kira asked. "Why is someone a Newtype and someone else isn't?"

"Does genetic engineering have anything to do with it?" Al asked.

"It can, but not always. I'm nothing special, just for example," Amuro said.

"What Kira calls a 'Natural'?"

"Exactly. I wish I could tell you the Universal Century had figured out everything about being a Newtype, but... well, officially, the Federation doesn't acknowledge that we exist. So ever since Zeon Zum Deikun's death, the phenomena has never been studied in a context besides... well, besides weaponization."

"Zeon... what?" Kira asked.

"... ah, that's right, you probably wouldn't know about that. Okay. Well, in my world, by the time I was... really, about your age, people were beginning to turn up hard evidence that some human beings possessed an active sixth sense... psychic powers, if you want to be dramatic about it. There was a man named Zeon Zum Deikun who believed that people who lived in space would all inevitably become Newtypes, so they could communicate with each other over vast distances."

"Does this have anything to do with Zeon Commander Ridden and Lieutenant Gato are from?" Al asked.

"The same. Deikun declared the colony of Side 3 an independent nation, but he was assassinated. In Johnny's time, the Principality of Zeon is under control of the Zabi family."

"But those two aren't Newtypes... right?" Kira said.

"No. Not everyone who lives in space is a Newtype... honestly, I don't believe the space thing. I was born on Earth, and I was pretty old before I moved to the colonies. I think it's just something that happens sometimes. It can emerge in people naturally over time..." He trailed off, thinking of Christina.

"Is being a Newtype dangerous? I mean... is it easy to hurt people with it?" Kira asked. He seemed very emphatic on this point.

Amuro cast a quizzical glance at him. "Well... it's like any other power. It's as dangerous as the person who possesses it."

"So... does it make people afraid of you?"

"... sometimes. Sometimes they think it'll make you some kind of savior, or a fighting machine, or... well, whatever else they're hoping for."

Kira smiled, though there was something maudlin about it. "So it's not really any different from being a Coordinator, I guess..."

"I was going to say, this was all beginning to sound a bit familiar," Al said.

Most of Amuro's robotics project was safely packed away now. Amuro had moved to stow the bag back under his bunk when a shout through the still-open door filtered in from the hallway. It was followed by more shouting, which dissolved into mild cursing and other sounds of deep frustration.

Al was closest to the door and in magnetic shoes, so he could simply stick his head out the door to see what was going on. There was a blue-haired man in civilian clothes struggling against the hallway's ceiling and walls. He didn't seem like someone who was unused to maneuvering in zero gravity, but he was clearly surprised and unprepared to be there.

The man spotted Al quickly. "Hey! A little help here? And mind telling me where here is?" His face was lightly scarred along one eye, but otherwise he seemed a fairly unremarkable fellow, probably somewhere around Amuro's age.

Al briefly glanced back at Kira and Amuro. "Reinforcements."

Kira looked stricken. "Oh no... that means..."

Amuro sighed, and pushed himself past Al and out into the hallway. "Give us your name and the current year."

The newcomer blinked, floating up to the ceiling as he stopped struggling. "That's a pretty bizarre question..."

"I know. Still, name and year, please."

"Kincaid Nau and U.C. 0133. Uh, did the year change when I blinked and was in space all of a sudden? I'm not having a great day, but I'm not sure I'm ready for it to be that bad."

Amuro was struck speechless, so Al shrugged and took the liberty of answering for him. "It's that bad. In fact, it's probably worse."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Kincaid Nau is from the Crossbone Gundam manga, among other things. See, you far-future UC guys weren't going to be neglected forever.

Doctor Kamille is roughly from the Mobile Suit Gundam in U.C. 099 Moon Crisis manga. The catch here is that he appears very briefly, basically a cameo, and that Moon Crisis is generally not thought to be part of the standard U.C. timeline. As far as that goes, I'm mostly borrowing the doctor idea and extrapolating a lot of other things from what is generally known about the character. This is mostly so I can take the opportunity to explore what the hell Kamille was actually doing after the end of ZZ Gundam. I've always found it funny how silent Gundam canon and even most sidestories are on the matter.

-X-X-X-

Music for this chapter was mostly Gundam covers, specifically Masaaki Endoh's Enson albums and the Gundam Tribute from Lantis album. Incidentally, I've quite enjoyed the videos and songs recommendations that have begun popping up in reviews, and I thank everyone who's been leaving them.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / ?

Kincaid Nau / ?

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

Dogos Gear

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon

Granshirio


	60. Chapter 60

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Izumo's forces discover that the situation with their reinforcements is far more complicated than expected.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Izumo crew had quickly begun to gather at the ship's bridge once word got out that reinforcements were arriving. Rondo had taken over the captain's chair, lips pursed and eyes stony. Johnny had ops, his calm betraying no hint of the tension in the room. Domon leaned against a side wall, his face unable to disguise the quiet, frustrated fury he felt inside.

The bridge's doors parted, allowing Shin, Garrod, and Stellar to escort the bewildered new arrival. Doctor Bidan was clearly ill at ease, eyes locking suspiciously on Johnny from the moment he stepped into the room. The scrutiny of the other Izumo crew, who were far more forbidding than Stellar and her friends, clearly only made Doctor Bidan more tense.

Rondo uncrossed her legs and rose, her cold demeanor and dark clothing clearly having a profound effect upon the newcomer. "I am Rondo Mina Sahaku, captain of this ship and commander of this crew. You are the Doctor Kamille Bidan I've been told about, I presume?"

"Y-yes. I'm sorry, but, uh, wh-where..."

"Where am I from? I am one of the Emirs of the Principality of Orb, a country from the Earth of the Cosmic Era. It's the same timeline Shin and Stellar hail from. I presume they've told you something of it?"

"There kinda wasn't time..." Shin mumbled.

"Timelines? You're talking about people from... I don't know, parallel worlds?"

"Not necessarily different worlds. For instance, we are from the same Universal Century timeline, though I am twenty years your junior. For me, the One Year War is not yet over." Johnny rose from his ops station and approached Doctor Bidan. "Though for you, I suppose it is only so much history."

"I wish." The Doctor appeared to have some difficulty getting even those words out.

The reaction wasn't lost on Johnny, though he chose to brush it aside for the moment. "I am Commander Johnny Ridden. I take it you are a Federation man, then, Doctor Bidan? Or an Earthnoid?"

"I'm a Spacenoid. I don't care about politics, I'm a civilian." Doctor Bidan's gaze was steely as he spoke.

"... I see." Johnny remained stoic in the face of the doctor's obvious bitterness.

"We've come to a mutual understanding here, to set aside our worlds' politics and work together as best we can." Rondo's voice was icy. "This especially applies to you Universal Century men. The last thing we need now is another round of bickering."

"But of course. Doctor, I'll drop the matter after this, but if I could ask you one question?"

Doctor Bidan did not say he could, but did not move to stop him, either. Johnny thought about dropping the matter for the moment, but there was something about Doctor Bidan's demeanor that frankly annoyed him. Johnny pressed on, as if rising to a silent challenge.

"I am already aware that Zeon is doomed to lose the One Year War, but that remnant groups have preserved our philosophy as best they could. Can you tell me if, in the year 0099, Zeon still survives?"

The doctor regarded Johnny for a moment with an expression both hurt and incredulous, as if he'd been slapped by an unseen hand. Anger slowly began to cloud his eyes. "Zeon sentiment is like any other cancer. There's no cure, only ways to drive it into remission." The doctor's tone was venomous.

Johnny smiled, though his eyes had gone cold. "Thank you for the indulgence, Doctor Bidan."

"Why are they mad at each other?" Stellar leaned toward her friends, speaking in a hushed tone that was perfectly audible to everyone aboard the bridge.

Rondo's right eye twitched. Garrod winced and grimaced, while Shin sighed and buried his face in one palm. Thus far, the doctor's introduction was everything they hadn't wanted in a new ally.

"Enough of this!" Domon's voice was a clap of thunder, visibly startling the doctor. (For the others, Domon abruptly shouting was a fairly routine occurrence.) All eyes were on Domon as the King of Hearts crossed the room with two great strides, landing less than a meter from Doctor Bidan.

"I am Domon Kasshu, King of Hearts. Listen well to me, Doctor Biden! We on this ship now hang above the jaws of death. There is no time for the petty squabbles of your Universal Century! Here, you must choose to defy the Beyonder with us, or die at the hands of Devil Gundam's servants!"

Domon's sudden tirade rattled the doctor, the way a man might be rattled by the zealous fervor of a homeless street preacher. He took a few steps back, though he seemed more confused than afraid. "The what? What the hell are you talking about? What's a Beyonder?"

"The Beyonder! Was his message not left for you in your... your Mobile Suit, your Gundam, whatever you pilot?" Domon gestured broadly, sweeping one gloved hand.

"I'm a civilian! I don't pilot anything, why would I?" Doctor Bidan's voice was plaintive.

Rondo slowly lowered herself back into her chair, disgust on her face and in her voice. "You've got to be kidding me."

Shin glanced toward her uneasily. "Maybe not? Flay said she wasn't a pilot."

"Flay couldn't use a Mobile Suit," Stellar nodded.

"What the- why the hell would the Beyonder send us a guy who couldn't pilot? What's even the point?" Garrod said.

"Hey, uh... are we interrupting something?" The Izumo's doorway had slid open again, leaving a visibly perplexed Shiro standing in the doorway. Gato and Heero flanked him, both men looking a bit more dour than usual.

Johnny was glad for the intrusion. "Gentlemen, welcome. What news do you bring from the hangar?"

"Uh, same as everyone else, I guess. We've got some new arrivals in the hangar, so there's definitely reinforcements aboard the ship. How many pilots have we tracked down yet?"

"None, apparently."

Shiro blinked in confusion at Rondo's dry response. With a sigh, she forced herself to speak more plainly. "Let's say one thus far, the good doctor over there." Rondo nodded curtly to Doctor Bidan, as the man gawked at the spectacle of Shiro and Gato's tandem entrance.

"And there's another en route that we know of, with the Captain's group," Johnny said.

"We have three units unaccounted for in the hangar," Gato said. "So there's someone missing."

"Commander Ridden, sweep the ship for life signs," Rondo ordered. "If our third new pilot isn't with the Captain, then presumably they're lose somewhere in the bowels of the ship."

Johnny swiftly returned to his ops station. "Aye-aye, ma'am."

"One of you from the hangar, give us a camera feed of the new units," Rondo said.

Heero took it upon himself to execute this duty, silently hurling himself across the bridge toward an unoccupied console. His fingers flew swiftly across the controls, and soon the bridge's main forward viewscreen was filled with high camera view of the machines in the hangar.

The three new machines were painfully obvious, their silhouettes strange alien against the backdrop of more familiar machines. Shiro jogged down to the front of the bridge, gesturing at the images on the bridge. "Yeah, okay, so we think this one- the short one?- might be a Gundam Fighter or something like that..."

"Dude! Does that Gundam have a cape?" Garrod exclaimed. "- it does! And a sweet pirate hat! That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!"

"A pirate Gundam? That's a bit gauche," Rondo scowled. "Do we have any idea where it's from?"

"It's too flamboyant to be a Universal Century machine," Gato said. "And far too small."

"There are good men among the space pirates of my world," Domon said. He had calmed, his voice grown softer. "They are few, but they exist. They are not men who could participate in the Gundam Fight, though. Not unless sponsored by a member nation."

"I believe the Captain said something about his group's newcomer being a space pirate," Johnny said, frowning. "Though he was a bit agitated, and the explanation didn't entirely make sense."

"I suppose it can wait for the pilot's explanation," Rondo said. "Let's move on."

"Yeah, okay, so this one is... well, it's sure a Gundam!" Shiro tapped at the lower half of the screen. "I couldn't tell you anything else about it, but Heero swears it turns into something or other..."

"Variable geometry," Heero said. "There are obvious transformation mechanisms located throughout the machine's body. The alternate form is most likely some form of high-maneuverability air or spacecraft."

"That's kinda all we've got, though. I dunno, does it mean anything to the new guy?" Shiro asked.

Doctor Bidan had gone utterly silent, openly staring at the image on the forward viewscreen. He clearly recognized the machine, but as a thing of horror. The man had gone pale, fists clenched tightly. His breathing was heavier and louder.

"Doctor Bidan? I take it, then, that this is the machine you don't pilot?" Rondo couldn't quite keep the sneer out of her voice. She abhorred being lied to by someone who wasn't even good at it.

"I'm not getting back in that thing! You can't make me!" Doctor Bidan's outburst was frantic, loud enough to startle even Domon.

"Uh..." Shiro stared, effectively speaking for most of the gathered crew.

"H-hey, calm down. Nobody's going to make you do anything..." Shin took a step forward, unsure of what else to do.

"Yeah, these guys are pretty chill, if you give 'em a chance," Garrod added.

Doctor Bidan whirled upon the two boys. He said nothing, but there was a terror in his eyes so deep, so strong, that neither Garrod nor Shin knew what to make of it. Just meeting the man's gaze was somehow disturbing. Stellar had already sidled behind Shin, half-peeking around his shoulder.

There was a pneumatic hiss as the bridge's door opened for a third and final time.

"Sorry I'm late, guys..." It was the other newcomer, presumably the space pirate. "I guess I'm the kind of guy who shows up for a space war and leaves his magnetic books at home." His face was open and friendly, despite its scars, almost perfectly Doctor Bidan's opposite.

"Well, you couldn't help it..." Kira said.

"It's as much my fault as yours, anyway, Kincaid," Amuro followed him, fussing with a uniform he clearly hadn't work for awhile.

Al arched his visible eyebrow as he glanced around the room. "... are we interrupting something?"

There was a long moment of silence as the latest knot of pilots to make their way into the increasingly crowded bridge took in the strange scene.

Amuro took a few steps forward, looking at the newcomer more closely. Disbelief fought with an obvious sense of recognition. "... Kamille?"

Kamille and Amuro locked eyes for a moment. It was clear to the others that they were dealing with, at the very least, old acquaintances of some sort.

Amuro smiled, the smile of a man seeing an old friend. "It is you! Of all the place..."

The room held its breath as they waited to see what the, thus far, highly unpredictable doctor did next. He did not disappoint.

"No! Dammit, no! Get away from me!" Kamille pointed his finger accusingly at Amuro and screamed, the force of it terrifying.

Amuro's smile faded. "Kamille?"

"You're not dragging me back into this! I got out of this and I'm staying out, do you hear me? I'm going to have a real life, and you're not going to take that away from me!"

For many of the Izumo crew, it was the first time they had seen pain on the ordinarily indefatigable Captain's face. Whatever wound the doctor's words opened up was clearly an old one.

When Kamille began to move forward, it was with a jagged, swift motion. "I'm not going to end up like you or Quattro, dying a slave to some damned Mobile Suit! So for the last time, go! You're a dead man, and you don't belong in this world!"

Kincaid's eyebrows shot up, as he realized what was happening. "- of course! That's why this guy's pressure is so crazy-"

In a final surge of grief, Kamille kicked off of the bridge's floor. He sailed through the air with the practiced grace of those who live in space, and swung a terrific right hook Amuro's face. Kamille's began to look surprised when it became clear he was punching a being of flesh and blood, rather than a Newtype apparition.

The bridge erupted into bedlam after that. Al moved into action with superhuman agility, grabbing Kamille's coat to pull him down to the metal floor, and then kneeing him squarely in the gut.

Rondo rose from her command chair, bellowing. "Take that man to the brig!"

Kamille wouldn't have put up much of a fight at that point even if Al hadn't winded him. Domon and Shin were upon him in an eyeblink, each seizing him beneath an arm with enough force to break his magnetic boots's hold on the floor. From there, the Izumo's two most physical fighters could easily haul Kamille away. Stellar trailed out after them, obviously concerned.

"This is an outrage!" Gato bellowed. "The Beyonder gives Haman Karn the Devil Gundam, and gives us a madman?"

"No! It's a misunderstanding! That guy's a Newtype and Amuro's a Newtype..." Kincaid began.

"Being a Newtype doesn't make you crazy!" Garrod shouted.

"... does it?" Kira asked, his voice small and very afraid.

"That guy wasn't crazy! It's just... Amuro's a Londo Bell guy from 0093, right? And that guy's from his future, right? He probably just thought..."

Amuro began to laugh, a bitter, shriveled sound. One hand was to his bleeding face, presumably checking for injuries, or perhaps simply trying to hide his tears. "... he thought he really was seeing my ghost."

Johnny was already on his feet, eyes locked on the space pirate. "Explain this."

"Well... look, I just know what's history in my time, right? My name is Kincaid Nau, I'm from UC 0133..."

Gato gaped. "Fifty years..."

"And my history says this: in UC 0093, Char Aznable formed the second Neo-Zeon movement...

"He did what? What about Commander Karn?" Gato exclaimed.

"She, uh, she died in UC 0088, trying to lead an invasion of Earth..."

Johnny was quick to grasp the implications of that. "Which created a power vacuum that was easily exploited by an opportunistic man like the Red Comet. What was this Neo-Zeon's aim, Mister Nau?"

"They were going to drop this big asteroid, Axis, on Earth-"

"What? That is an abomination!" Gato seemed to find the thought horrific beyond belief. "That would cause nuclear winter and kill virtually all life on the planet! It's- it's a violation of Zeon Zum Deikun's most fundamental teachings! The Earth is sacred, no true man of Zeon would dare defile it that way!"

Shiro scowled. "The Earth is sacred, so you drop colonies on it?"

"Lieutenant Amada," Johnny turned to face him. "While a colony drop is a catastrophic event for human settlements, it doesn't contaminate the Earth itself in any lasting way. Even primitive nuclear weapons were more scarring."

"Yeah, uh, I gotta beg to differ here." Garrod's arms were crossed, and he looked singularly unimpressed. "You guys have heard how the Seventh Space War ends, right?"

Gato's response was, perhaps, a bit too defensive. "That's because the Spacenoids of your world were fools, and dropped all of their colonies at once! The true philosophy of Zeon would never permit such a thing!"

"But after years of Haman Karn's rule, what would Zeon's philosophy look like?" Johnny sighed. "It's not hard to put lies into a dead man's mouth."

"You're right." Gato's voice was weak, his horror becoming a quiet, smoldering rage. "How could things have come to this?"

Amuro leaned against a wall, wiping blood from his busted lip. He seemed to look at the ceiling as he spoke. "Char. He created a Zeon power vacuum at the end of the One Year War that made it possible for Haman Karn to come into power. He knew it was his fault, too. He spent the war picking off the Zabi family one by one, but never thought about the consequences of that until it was too late."

"What?" Johnny cried in shock. "You mean to say he killed- he killed all of them? To what end?"

Amuro gestured vaguely with one hand. "Revenge. It was a family matter, nothing more."

"I knew it. I knew that man was a snake, from the very beginning..." Johnny's surprise was quickly becoming anger.

"It's not that simple. Char wasn't an evil man," Amuro said, leaning heavily against the wall. He sounded tired, and regretful. "He tried to take responsibility for the consequences of what he'd done in the One Year War, but it was too much for him. It was too much for any of us, even for all of us put together." His voice fell into something just barely above a murmur. "I decided to become Sisyphus and work toward change that would never come, and Char... ah, what's that old saying? It was an ancient general's motto... 'If the bird won't sing, kill it.'"

"If the Earth would not permit him to redeem it, then he would destroy it," Johnny seemed to hardly believe the words as he said it. "Captain, I do not understand how you can say that such a man wasn't evil."

"Mister Nau," Rondo interrupted, quietly. "Finish the story of what happened in UC 0093, if you would."

"Oh... oh, yeah, right," Kincaid began again. "Well, uh... so the Neo-Zeon tried to move Axis into orbit, so the Londo Bell planted nuclear bombs in it and tried to blow it apart. That worked, but Axis ended up cracking in half instead of just being blown to bits..."

"Of course, because of the high heavy mineral content," Gato said.

Amuro sighed. "We thought most of the heavy minerals would've been extracted by then. The devil's in the details, I guess."

"Yeah, so, Axis's back half started falling toward Earth. So, a bunch of Mobile Suits from, like, all the factions in play... Londo Bell guys, Neo-Zeon guys, even the Federation's 88th Fleet, they all fly up to Axis and try to push it out of re-entry..." Kincaid had begun to gesture broadly as he told the story, then paused and looked a bit embarrassed. "Ah, sorry... I always liked this part of the story, y'know, I think it says a lot about human nature...

But yeah, uh, anyway, at least one of the guys there is piloting a unit with a psychoframe, and of course a bunch of the pilots are going to be Newtypes, and everyone's being really intense... so the psychoframes overload, y'know, because they're dangerous and unstable... and there's this huge explosion, and a bunch of pilots die but Axis is finally pushed out of re-entry.

They called it the Axis Shock, because the psychoframe activity left this huge corona of light around the Earth. I've just seen pictures of it, I wasn't even born yet when it happened, but they say it was so big and so bright you could see it from anywhere on Earth for a whole year after the incident."

Amuro had no obvious reaction to what he heard, merely nodding along with parts of the story that sounded particularly plausible to him. "I always thought psychoframe technology was a bit too good to be true. So it's fallen out of use, in your time?"

Kincaid nodded. "Yeah, bio-computers work better and are a lot safer. A lot of people think Anaheim's obsession with weird, impractical stuff like psychoframes is how SNRI ended up replacing them about twenty years ago... uh, around UC 0110 or so."

"So what you're saying is that even if we win the Beyonder's war game, even if we all get to go back home... no matter what we do, when Amuro goes back to his own time, he's just going to end up dying in the Axis Shock?" Kira asked.

"Well... it'd explain why that other guy thought he was a ghost! Some Newtypes are really sensitive to that sort of thing," Kincaid shrugged. "You can kinda feel death on people, sometimes."

Kira stamped a foot in frustration. "That's not fair!"

Al glanced toward him. "Wars tend not to be fair, Kira."

"Well... they should be!"

"So... tell me one more thing, Mister Nau," Johnny asked. "Was the Axis Shock the end of Zeon? Does any remnant of our philosophy endure into your time?"

"There were flare-ups with Zeon remnants throughout the 90s, but nothing large-scale. By my time... Zeon's pretty much history," Kincaid frowned. "I'm sorry."

"No... no, do not be sorry, Mister Nau." The fire that had gone out of Gato's eyes when Haman rejected him seemed to be back again. "It is better that Zeon should be dead, than to endure in such hideous form."

Johnny tilted his head toward Amuro. "Captain, how much of this did you know already?"

"Well... obviously not the part where I exploded."

Johnny didn't appreciate the joke. "And before that?"

Amuro sighed. "Most of the rest... if I didn't know it, what Kincaid said was pretty close to my best guess."

"If you knew this all along, why didn't you say something?" Gato's voice exploded with a zeal he hadn't expressed in weeks. "Everything with Char, with Lord Garma... we could have done things differently!"

Amuro looked at Gato, his expression absolutely serious. His lip was beginning to swell, but he could still speak clearly. "Could we? I don't see how telling you these things would've made a difference. It's not Char that killed Garma here, and killing a Char from 0087 wouldn't have changed the fate of the Zabi family. All it would've done is crush your faith before Haman Karn had the chance to do it herself, and I..." He leaned back against the wall again, as if exhausted. "... I didn't want to be responsible for that. I guess that's what it always comes back to with me... not wanting to be responsible."

"But Haman Karn is the crux of the thing! You could have warned us about her!" Johnny said.

"No. I never met Haman Karn before I came here," Amuro shook his head emphatically. "I had no way of knowing she'd turn out to be such a viper. If I did... trust me, I wouldn't have stayed silent about that. Nobody deserves to die the way Garma did."

Johnny exhaled, visibly struggling to regain his composure. "It would be a huge lie to say I wasn't disappointed with your behavior, Captain Ray, but you do have one very good point. For now, none of this information is significant, beyond explaining Doctor Bidan's psychosis. We should focus on using it to better deal with him. I presume that if there's anything else we need to know about the Doctor's condition, Captain Ray will be forthcoming about it this time."

Amuro winced. "Johnny, it'd be less cruel just to punch me in the face again."

"Yes. That's why I'm not doing it."

Rondo tapped her chin, deep in thought. "You've given us a lot to think about, Mister Nau. Thank you."

"Are you sure you're a space pirate? You seem kinda..." Shiro gestured with one hand, trying to think of how to put it. "... nice."

Kincaid grinned broadly, shrugging. "Well, I'll admit, the Crossbone Vanguard are... not exactly conventional space pirates. We can talk about it later."

"Hey, so you pilot the robot with the sweet hat and cape, right?" Garrod asked.

"Hey, yeah! That's my X-1, plain as day." Kincaid pointed toward the screen.

Gato's eyes narrowed. "... what?"

"Absolutely! X-1 probably looks a little weird to you guys, but trust me! In my time, that's pretty much what all the Crossbone Vanguard's Gundam-type Mobile Suits look like."

Kincaid's grin faded after he finished speaking. He did not seem entirely prepared for the look of profound, confused hopelessness that crossed the faces of the men from the Universal Century. They were not prepared to accept a future of miniature pirate Gundams.

"... you know, we should go get a drink after this."

"An excellent idea, Captain."

"Quite."

Rondo frowned at them. "I'd appreciate it if you three could wait until after we'd found our third pilot. Can anyone even recognize that third Mobile Suit? What's that thing on its back?"

Kira squinted "It seems... it's probably a Cosmic Era machine, but that backpack..."

"The ring has to be some type of solar sail." As usual, Heero spoke so rarely that it was a bit of a surprise when he did. "If so, then we're dealing with a machine designed for deep space travel. It could be a Mobile Doll, rather a Mobile Suit."

"A what?" Rondo asked.

Heero paused, considering his words carefully. "A drone."

"An unmanned Mobile Suit? That would certainly explain our missing pilot... but it seems unlike Beyonder to bring such a thing here."

Johnny glanced back at his ops console. The sensor sweep had finished while the other pilots argued. "... an astute guess, Lieutenant Gato. That machine is piloted. Our missing life signs are in that thing's cockpit."

"Life signs?" Rondo leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse of Johnny's screen. "As in, more than one?"

"Yes. Two individuals. The ringed Gundam must be fitted with some sort dual cockpit system... they're not responding to hailing frequencies."

"Let me go get Hachi," Amuro pushed himself off the wall, his bout of melancholy forgotten for the moment. "If it really is a Cosmic Era machine, we can probably hack into it... the pilots might be unconscious or something."

"Alright then, gentlemen." Rondo rose from her chair and began striding toward the door. "To the hangar. Let's see what the Beyonder's left us to deal with this time."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

The identity of the "ringed Gundam" is going to be pretty obvious to some people, but I won't spell it out until an appropriate time in the future.

The term "Axis Shock" originated from Unicorn (or UC) Gundam. It seemed logical to me that this would be the sort of thing that became a noteworthy historical event, and therefore something Kincaid could talk about. Obviously, certain details would be lost with time.

There's been some concern in the comments about Moon Crisis and Unicorn conflicting with each other. For the record, I don't plan on directly referencing the plot of Moon Crisis, since I don't find it very interesting. I mostly wanted to appropriate the concept of Kamille leaving the military life behind to become a doctor, and what might have prompted such a decision.

I will reference Unicorn where it makes sense to do so... but probably not in detail, until the animated version of the story is complete. In short, for Gundam Wars's purposes, imagine a series of incidents involving Neo-Zeon remnants flared up throughout the 90s. It won't be necessary, for my purposes, to go into the details of each incident. Unicorn paints a pretty good picture of why Zeon sympathizers were willing to hold out for so long, and why they were so numerous.

I know people are also worried about what the Black Faction is doing right now. Don't worry, we'll get around to them in a future chapter, and Rau isn't the only reinforcement they're getting. The White Faction just has a lot of character stuff I want to cover first, to help set up what goes down in the next arc.

The myth of Sisyphus is a fairly common story, so I imagine people will be able to look it up easily.

The phrase "if the bird won't sing, kill it" was the motto of the Warring States-era warlord Nobunaga Oda, and to me, always seemed to be a pithy way of summing up Char's probable mindset during the events of Char's Counterattack. There's a similar saying, "If the bird won't sing, wait," that's attributed to Ieyasu Tokugawa, that I feel sums up Amuro's philosophy at the time pretty well.

In the series of sayings, there's a third attributed to Hideyoshi Toyotomi that goes, "If the bird won't sing, then make it sing." Keep that one in mind, as there's a character appearing in a future chapter who more or less embodies that philosophy.

I'm genuinely touched by the sheer level of intensity and investment in the story shown by the last round of reviews. I'm honored that people care this much about where the story is going. I really enjoy reading these reviews, so please, keep 'em coming.

If you're generally worried about the direction of the story right now, all I can really say is this: I had planned for these events to occur before I'd even written the first chapter. Devil Gundam was always going to show up in roughly these circumstances at this point in the story, so I have definitely put thought into how this part of the story will go. I'll be very interested to see how people feel about things as the plot develops.

-X-X-X-

I wrote most of this chapter on a long, rainy night, so I suppose my soundtrack would be raindrops on the roof. Rainy nights always seem to be best for writing about melancholy subjects.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

? & ? / ?

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	61. Chapter 61

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: As the Izumo pilots wait for the situation with the Stargazer to be resolved, much is revealed about the far future that radically changes the UC pilots' view of their present.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"Okay, got it. Stand back!" Text flashed on Hachi's screen. Amuro obligingly pushed himself away from the torso of the "ringed Gundam," floating down to the floor where the other Izumo pilots present gathered.

The machine's oversized cockpit swung open, pneumatic gas flooding out into the Izumo's hangar. Once it had dispersed, Amuro pulled himself back up the cable he'd used to ascend.

"- we've got pilots, but they're unconscious!" He shouted down to the others.

"Are they hurt?" Rondo shouted up at him.

"They don't look hurt, but... well, I'm not really an expert on this kind of thing..."

Heero silently began to ascend the ringed Gundam, climbing it as if it was a rock surface. Once he swung up and onto the machine's cockpit, he found a flummoxed Amuro and the unconscious pilots.

It was a woman and a man, the two of them wrapped in layers of thick grey blankets, the sort designed for emergency use in escape pods and shuttles. Their heads leaned gently against each other, as if they were merely napping lovers. Heero took the woman's pulse using her carotid artery, pressing two fingers to her neck. His expression, usually flat, became the slightest frown. He checked the man's pulse the same way, and his frown deepened.

"Is it bad?" Amuro asked. His voice slurred when he didn't speak carefully; his lip was still swollen.

"Possibly," Heero said. "Their pulses are extremely weak. They must have used drugs to induce this state... probably to conserve oxygen."

"Do you know how to revive them?"

"No. We need the doctor." This time Heero spoke loudly, to make sure those waiting below could here.

"Do you think that guy would even help us?" Shiro asked. "He was going pretty nuts back on the bridge."

"He helped Shin out first thing. Before he even asked any questions, even. I dunno, he might not be the best Newtype, but he seems like a pretty good a doctor," Garrod shrugged, not quite willing to sound hopeful.

Heero vaulted off the open cockpit hatch, landing expertly on the ground below. "I'll deal with it." With that, he stalked in the direction of the nearest intercom station.

Kira glanced at Al as Heero strode away. "Isn't this kind of weird, for Heero?"

"Heero's harsh, not heartless," Al said. "And, I imagine, very persuasive when he wants to be."

"Ohhh... you're right. I almost feel bad for that doctor, now."

"I've been thinking..." Johnny said. "Kamille Bidan's name has been mentioned before in the Gundam War, hasn't it? I believe Haman Karn brought him up, when we first met you."

"That's right," Rondo nodded. "When we were discussing the matter of Char Aznable's death."

Amuro touched lightly down on the floor, scowling at the conversation. "I still can't believe she did that..."

"But she wasn't lying, correct?" Johnny asked, though his tone was rhetorical. "She mentioned that Bidan suffered some sort of trauma as a result of a battle with Paptimus Scirocco. Captain, do you think it would be serious enough to still be affecting his behavior?"

"It's possible, I guess. I didn't participate in Operation Maelstrom, but... well, the shape he was in for the next year was pretty famously bad. Captain Bright... ah, Kamille's commanding officer at the time... he said that Kamille recovered after a year, but... well, there was something unusual..."

Johnny nodded. "Go on, please."

Amuro did so, though he was clearly reluctant. "During the First Neo-Zeon War that followed the Gryps War, Kamille appeared to be recovering gradually. When the war ended, though, there was a moment where... it was as if he came back to himself in an instant, but he couldn't remember anything from the past year. Not people he'd met, or things he'd done, or even where he'd been. Bright said that was why Kamille wanted to be discharged when the AEUG broke up... and, to be honest, why I never really expected to see him again."

Al's brows furrowed. "What you're describing sounds like brain damage to me. Did this Captain Bright mention anything about a personality change? Or does he seem different to you?"

"Bright didn't say anything... but to be fair, it's not really the sort of thing he'd mention. I wouldn't know, myself," Amuro sighed. "The last time I saw him before now was before Operation Maelstrom. He was just a kid then, probably Garrod's age. I guess I assumed he'd work through everything, given enough time away from the front."

"He didn't. That guy's seriously not okay," Kincaid spoke up. "I don't mean just the obvious stuff, either. His pressure's off. It's like... I don't know, like listening to someone play a piano that's out of tune."

"How can you tell?" Kira asked.

"Oh... just one of my talents. I figure we should know that kind of stuff about each other if we're going to fight the Gundam War together, right?"

Amuro's posture was weary, almost defeated. "We should. That doesn't make it any easier to hear, though."

"Man, no wonder you Newtypes need us regular guys to watch your backs. I knew the Federation was always trying to turn you into weapons, but I didn't know you could make each other go psychic brain crazy."

Amuro glanced at Garrod, feeling annoyed for reasons he couldn't entirely place. "Oh, come on. It's not that bad."

"It kind of sounds that bad," Kira said, his voice small and apologetic.

Kincaid nodded. "Yeah... I really hate all the bad news I keep dumping on you guys from the past, but the period of history you're from isn't really remembered as a good time to be a Newtype."

"Which period of history is that, exactly?" Johnny asked.

"Oh, I dunno... I guess everything from the One Year War until around the time I was born? I mean, I'm not gonna lie, things aren't exactly great in my time, but you just don't end up with guys as bad off as Doctor Bidan in my day. Even guys as bad off as Captain Ray are pretty rare."

"- wait, bad off?" Amuro looked and sounded alarmed. "What do you mean?"

"Your brain scars. I figure you know about 'em, right?" Kincaid tried to smile reassuringly, but it faded as he saw the incomprehension on Amuro's face. "Or not? You know what a brain scar is, right?"

"Of course I don't! Newtypes don't legally exist yet, as far as the Federation's concerned. How am I supposed to know anything?"

"Oh," was all Kincaid could muster. He groped for a way to explain himself, embarrassed that he'd done it again. "Well, it's like... Newtype sensitivity goes both ways, right? You can reach out to people, but it's also pretty easy for others to reach in and hurt you... or for something traumatic to leave a pretty deep would." Kincaid's face grew more somber as he spoke. His gaze was far-off, clearly remembering some far-off event from his past. "Some people get hurt so much or so deeply that they start trying to push contact out... and that's a brain scar. It's a hard spot in your psyche. It starts with insensitivity, then it turns into an iron wall... and if it goes too far, it becomes an iron mask that cuts you off from your own humanity.

Look, that's not something I want to see happen to anybody. When I say stuff like this, I'm really just trying to help!" Kincaid's voice brightened, as he seized on what seemed like a scrap of good news to leaven all the bad. "Besides, you're not all that bad off yet. I can still tell you're there, at least. It's just something you want to ignore."

A certain hopelessness had settled into Amuro's face. "I suppose I should be thankful I'm going to explode before I can become an inhuman monster, then."

Kincaid's expression had become profoundly strained. "... I'm not really your favorite guy right now, huh?"

"Not exactly, no..."

"But... this can't be true!" Kira protested. "I could contact Amuro just fine during the last battle..."

Kincaid shrugged. "That was probably more you than him. You seem like a guy who's easy to talk to, y'know?"

"Dammit!" Johnny cursed. "I knew history was broken, but I had no idea it'd gone this far."

"Commander, what..." Amuro began.

"Everything you're talking about! Casual brain damage, the Federation turning a blind eye to it all... this wasn't supposed to happen! If my Lady Kycilia had survived the end of the One Year War, the history of Newtypes would have been completely different!"

"That's right, Lady Kycilia oversaw the Newtype Corps," Gato said. "She would've been responsible for all of Zeon's research into Newtype potential. If her division's findings didn't survive the war..." His voice took on an ominous tone.

"Of course they didn't survive! It's like everything else Zeon should have accomplished, consumed by the Red Comet's petty vengeance!" Johnny was caught up in a rare moment of open anger. "The Vultures have preserved Newtypes even in the After War timeline. Zeon should have done the same in the Universal Century, that much is very clear to me now. When we lost the One Year War we failed in that task completely, and abandoned a generation to the cruelty of fate."

Gato closed his eyes, his expression a cold mask. "I cannot deny the logic of your argument, Commander Ridden. Not at this point."

"Hey, hold it a minute. Are you guys talking about changing history? That seems kinda... not safe," Shiro said.

"Gentlemen. This has all been very fascinating, but it's neither the time nor place for local politics. Captain," The commanding tone in Rondo's voice changed, softening somewhat. "Have you gathered any data on the ringed Gundam?"

"Oh, right..." Amuro raised Hachi and began bringing up schematics. "The registry number is GSX-401FW, call sign 'Stargazer.' The interesting thing is that it's not registered to ZAFT or the Alliance... instead it's some group that calls itself 'DSSD.' Kira, Rondo, does that mean anything to you?"

Rondo clearly recognized the name. "DSSD? They're a civilian research organization. They're researching the possibility of human colonization beyond Mars. Why on Earth would they have a combat-worthy Mobile Suit?"

"That's why it has a solar sail!" Kira exclaimed. "They must be studying a way to use Mobile Suits and the GUNDAM OS for deep space exploration! If you could solve the life support problem, you could use a solar sail to send someone from Earth to the edge of the solar system, without having to worry about power consumption problems or anything!"

Gato snorted. "A Gundam built for peaceful purposes? That's almost more ridiculous than the pirate."

"Why would the Beyonder send that into the Gundam War? Does it even have any weapons?" Al asked.

"Beam pistols, it looks like, and an interesting-looking beam shield system..." Amuro frowned. "... there's something else I should mention, too. The Stargazer's artificially intelligent."

"... what? You mean it's self-aware?"

"Ah... somewhat? Hachi, give me a metaphor or something, this is hard to explain."

"No problem," Hachi's screen flashed. "Just read this out loud."

Amuro dutifully read the words that slowly flashed on Hachi's screen. "Stargazer's self-aware, but it's not independently functional yet. To put it in human terms, it's like a baby or a toddler. An adult AI would be more like me or Turn-A." He blanched as he realized Hachi had outed one of Turn-A's secrets far ahead of schedule.

The effect on the others was predictable. "What?" Gato bellowed. "The the Immortal White Devil is self-aware, on top of everything else?"

Johnny's voice rose slighty. "With all due respect, Captain Ray-"

Amuro knew what was coming, and cut Johnny off with a frantic excuse. "I was going to tell you! I was going to tell everyone, I swear, I just haven't had the right opportunity yet!"

"That's what you meant when you said you had to tell people things about Turn-A, right?" Kira asked.

"It's one of them... there's a lot more about Turn-A I need to explain before we figure out what we're going to do about Devil Gundam. And I swear, I'm going to tell everyone everything! It's just... complicated, and I need to figure out how I'm going to do it."

"I'm willing to be patient, Captain Ray," Johnny said, mollified for the time being. "But I expect that, when the time comes, you will make a full account of things."

"You're really not going to let me live down the Neo-Zeon thing, are you?" Amuro asked.

"Absolutely not."

-X-X-X-

The conversation ended with the unmistakable sound of magnetic boots tromping along the hangar floor. It was Shin and Stellar, and they appeared to be in a hurry.

As it happened, Doctor Bidan had calmed down and was more than willing to be cooperative. Stellar and Shin had headed down to the hangar with orders to move the Stargazer's pilots to sick bay immediately, and obtain a list of whatever drugs the Stargazer might've had on board. Both objectives were easily accomplished.

Actually awakening the Stargazer's pilots was another matter entirely. Doctor Bidan co-opting Heero as an assistant to try and speed up the work, but roadblock after roadblock awaited him. He began with a simple battery of tests on the comatose pilots, then spent a good thirty minutes getting a basic explanation of coordinators.

Once he was convinced he could treat a coordinator (and whatever the male was) without killing either person, there was the question of what to administer, and how much of it, to restore normal body functions. This lead to a four-hour ordeal in which every substance in the Izumo's long-neglected sick bay had to be a properly cataloged or otherwise discarded.

During this process, it became clear why Heero had no difficulty working with the prickly Doctor. The same traits that made him seem cold and distant also left him utterly indifferent to the Doctor's bad attitude and grating habits. He simply did as he was told, silently and without complaint.

At first, the Izumo pilots had gathered near sick bay so they could present when the new pilots awakened. A few had tried to help, when it became clear that the process would take much longer than expected. One by one, everyone except Heero ended up leaving to attend to other business. The thinner the crowd got, the happier Doctor Bidan became.

A full eight hours after the Stargazer's cockpit was open, a call finally went from sick bay to the bridge, and then from the bridge to every part of the ship, and every personal electronic device.

"The Stargazer's pilots are awake. All hands, report to the main briefing room."

-X-X-X-

The "brain scars" thing is pure fan-theory on my part, though it's based (like much of my interpretation of Newtypes) on something from Tomino's original Mobile Suit Gundam novels. I wanted to establish the notion of brain scars both to set up a plot later in the story, but also to address the fact that the Newtype villains of F91 and Crossbone behave in a way that's fundamentally unlike what the Newtype villain depictions you see in works set earlier in the UC timeline.

Carozzo and Crux Dogatie are Newtypes, but have no qualms with attempting mass atrocities on a scale that not even Paptimus Scirocco would sanction on his worst day. Given the backstories of both men and the obvious presence of more Newtypes in the future of F91 and Crossbone, it suggested a world where dysfunctional Newtypes have become a problem. It also suggested the way a Newtype might become truly dysfunctional.

The idea of a psychic wall emerging as a result of Newtype dysfunction first comes up in the Mobile Suit Gundam novels with the character Kusko Al, a successor of sorts to Lalah. She has a crush on Amuro, but has a psychotically negative reaction to attempts at psychic contact. For Unicorn fans, you could interpret a similar but less severe phenomenon occurring in episode 4, when Banagher tries to persuade Loni through psychic contact and is essentially pushed away.

To tie together the late UC's dysfunctional Newtypes with the characters from earlier timelines a bit better, it seemed interesting to sugges that CCA Amuro was a character moving in the negative direction Carozzo and Dogatie represent (a context that seemed interesting given Lalah's cryptic scenes in the film). It's also consistent with Amuro's portrayal toward the end of the Mobile Suit Gundam novels, when Char attempts to contact him psychically and the whole thing goes rather badly. While novel Amuro and animation Amuro are very different characters in many other respects, that commonality seemed interesting.

As a final note, the idea that Kamille simply blacked out the events of ZZ and can't remember them has no canonical basis. I wanted there to be some concrete reason why Kamille simply falls off the map after the events of ZZ, though, and a reason like this felt like something that could tie in with other plotlines in a (hopefully) interesting way.

I think we'll spend about one more chapter setting up the White Faction's next move before we catch up with the Black Faction on Earth. Be just a little more patient, Black Faction fans.

-X-X-X-

Listened to a bunch of random old Masami Okui singles while working on this chapter. It's funny, she's never done a song for a Gundam series (that I am aware of), but still has a sound that always struck me as perfect for the franchise.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	62. Chapter 62

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The reinforced Izumo crew gathers to meet Stargazer's pilots and devise a strategy for defeating the Devil Gundam, but instead stumbles upon the terrible truth of the Gundam War.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

There was an air of exhaustion in the room where the doctor and his two recovering patients waited. For Doctor Bidan, it was the simple fact that he was approaching the end of a long and inordinately stressful day. For his patients, it was the after-effects of over six hundred and sixty hours spent in an induced coma.

"I thought that someone would end up retrieving us, eventually," the woman said, her hands folded neatly in her lap. "I can't say that I imagined a situation like this, though."

Doctor Bidan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more about it, Ms. McGriff..."

"Please, call me Selene. And I guess you have a first name too, Doctor?"

"Ah... Kamille is fine." He acted nervous about saying his given name, as if he expected some sort of reaction to it.

Selene didn't seem to think it anything out of the ordinary, though. "Kamille, then. You've done what you could, and I appreciate that."

"Selene..." It was a surprise when the white-haired man next to her spoke. He'd seemed sluggish and disoriented before. Kamille had been cautious around him, owing to the uniform he'd changed into before heading to the briefing room. The colors and lines gave him the distinct impression of the Titans, though the details were far from correct.

Selene showed no such caution. "... Sven? I thought told you my name already."

"You fell asleep first." Sven's voice was soft, bordering on bashful.

"Did I?" Selene laughed. There was a note of delight in it that made Kamille feel profoundly lonely.

"So... my rib and my collarbone..." Sven began.

She glanced toward Kamille. "That's right! Kamille, did you do something about that? Sven seems fine now."

"He was fine when I treated him. My check-up didn't turn up any signs of an injury like that."

Sven flexed a shoulder, experimentally. "I don't mind, but... when I went under, they were definitely broken."

"Yeah, you'd better get used to weird stuff like that!" The door to the briefing room had opened while Sven was speaking. Shiro came through, carrying the front half of a massive coffee urn. "It sounds like Beyonder shenanigans to me."

Sven stared quietly at Shiro, entirely unsure how to respond.

Kincaid followed Shiro, carrying the urn's back half. He seemed to be carefully resting most of the weight on his left hand. "So maybe it's because I haven't seen the video yet, but this Beyonder stuff sounds pretty hard to swallow..."

"Ahh, it'll all make sense when everybody's here to explain it... I'm Shiro Amada, by the way! Nice to meet you guys." Shiro introduced himself while he helped Kincaid set the urn on a table, placing it carefully on its base. "Are you sure you needed help with that? Didn't seem to heavy to me."

"Maybe if we hadn't filled it up before we moved it. With the water in it, though... well, I've got to be careful about how much I carry with Righty here." Kincaid lifted his metallic right hand and flexed it. In the quiet room, it was easy to hear the motors within buzzing softly.

Shiro stared. "Wait, that's not..."

"Nope! Lost it and part of my arm when X-1 got into an accident on Earth. It's pretty good for piloting, but... not exactly top-of-the-line. You don't exactly get rich being a space pirate..." Kincaid paused to chuckle, before he noticed his tangent had quite the opposite of his desired effect. "... uh, hey, are you okay?"

Shiro didn't look okay at all. If anything, he looked somewhere between ill and horrified. "Yeah, that's... uh... y'know, somebody needs to go back for cups, and..." Shiro edged around Kincaid, and all but fled the room.

Kincaid lowered his hand, sadly, then glanced at the others. "... you know, I thought he'd be... I dunno, kind of impressed? I'm starting to think I'm not very good at this."

Selene shrugged. "Well... that is a pretty rough-looking prosthetic. And you are?"

"Oh! Kincaid Nau. I'm the last of the new guys, from what I hear. You know, the new-new guys? The four of us?" He went to the urn and fiddled with the controls. The water inside began to heat, initiating the complex zero-gravity brewing process.

"How many of 'us' are there?" Sven asked.

"Counting the guys who were already here? Fifteen."

"So many?" Sven was clearly dismayed. "That's a full squadron... almost a platoon."

Kincaid nodded."Yeah... I admit, this sounds like one nasty fight the Izumo guys have on their hands. I can't say I'm happy about being here... but I can't say I'd be happy trying to turn a blind eye to it, either."

"A fight?" Selene frowned. "I hope this Beyonder understands that the Stargazer is a research unit. Its combat capabilities are very limited."

"If the Beyonder is real, he's too cruel to care," Kamille's bitterness was obvious.

At this point, the Izumo's regular duty pilots began to filter into the room. Rondo arrived first and alone. She favored Selene with an elaborate introduction, while ignoring Sven entirely.

The rest of the crew appeared in small groups. Anavel Gato and Johnny Ridden paid their respects to Sven and Selene with quiet, stiff formality, ignoring Kamille's obvious discomfort at their presence.

Al, Kira, and Amuro all arrived together and gave the newcomers a wide berth. Kira was clearly alarmed at Sven's forbidding black Alliance uniform, and Amuro and Kamille were clearly going to great lengths to avoid accidental eye contact.

The last five pilots arrived in a great knot: Garrod, Stellar, and Shin, with Domon and Heero trailing them silently. Garrod was chattering away about his misadventures as a thief before he became a Vulture, but Stellar interrupted his narrative the second she saw Sven. She moved quickly away from Shin's side, much to the young man's surprise, and saluted solemnly to him.

"Phantom Pain," she said.

Sven returned her salute, slowly and gravely. "Phantom Pain."

"... you know her?" Shin asked, incredulous.

Sven paused. He was, in fact, sure he'd seen this girl before. He remembered a moment that now seemed it had happened a lifetime ago, when he'd been standing in the hallway of a squat EA base. He'd glimpsed a used-up Extended being wheeled away by handlers on a gurney, passing him silently.

This girl's hair and features were the same, but she was far from used-up. She hardly even looked like an Extended, in fact. There was a light in her eyes and she smiled like a real girl might. Sven couldn't entirely dismiss the feeling, however unlikely, that the resemblance was just a coincidence.

"Not personally, but we're from the same... the same unit. Earth Alliance Special Forces, 81st Autonomous Mobile Group. Phantom Pain." Sven spoke with a career soldier's encyclopedic knowledge of his post, but not the customary pride.

"You are Stellar's brother?" she asked.

"I... no. No, I am not... Extended."

"Cousin?"

"I am not a Boosted Man."

Stellar's smile did not waver. "But you are Stellar's friend?"

Sven paused, as if considering the matter carefully. "Yes. Sven is Stellar's friend."

Stellar appeared delighted to no longer be alone among the Izumo forces, after a certain fashion. "Good! There are lots of friends here."

Sven watched her, wonder in his face. "... you aren't programming her."

It took a moment for Sven to properly interpret the expressions of that passed across the group's faces. It was incomprehension. It seemed none of them knew what he was talking about.

Garrod was confused. "Programming? I don't-"

Heero interrupted him. "These people aren't like that. Even if they knew how, they wouldn't." His stony expression hadn't changed at all.

Sven smiled. He suddenly felt very glad to be on this ship.

Shin could feel they'd become the center of attention, and a wave of self-consciousness passed over him. "I... I don't want to hold things up, but could we talk about this later, maybe?"

"Of course."

"Yes. I'd like to hear more about this." Kamille's voice was unexpected, but there was a terrible seriousness in his eyes.

Shin blinked at him. "Uh... sure. Later."

The group speaking with Sven moved on to take their seats, just as Shiro returned to the room toting the missing coffee cups (which were actually thermally insulated dispensers that required the beverage to be drunk through a straw). Shiro was a bit pale but seemed composed now, and Kincaid let the matter of his prosthetic drop. Instead, he focused on serving coffee to the gathered pilots with a sense of unfettered glee.

"See? No pronouncements of doom this time, just good hot coffee!"

The joke didn't go over quite as well as Kincaid hoped, though Amuro smiled despite himself.

"Alright, it seems everyone's here," Rondo said, after waiting patiently to let the tableau of meetings play itself out. "Let's get started, shall we? Introductions."

The formal introductions were of little use to anyone save Sven and Selene, owing to Kamille and Kincaid's earlier misadventures. Still, it seemed to clear the air to have everyone announce their name and, in some cases, a rank or point of origin.

When that was finished, Rondo swiftly moved everyone along her agenda.

"Alright. We're all decently oriented, so let's show you the Beyonder's message. Ordinarily you'd see this in your machines, but since some of you are choosing to be recalcitrant..."

"I'm not a pilot," Kamille said, voice unnecessarily loud.

"... we'll do it this way. Captain, can I assume it's the same as ever?"

Amuro placed Hachi on his lap and began using him in tablet mode, to initiate a broadcast on the room's forward screen. "It was when I looked at it. Anyway, here it is."

The room's lights automatically dimmed as the Beyonder's message played out as it always did, with the same rules and the same vague promise of rewards upon victory.

When the lights rose, it was clear that the message had a very different effect on each of the four new pilots.

Selene was confused, brows knit in sheer incomprehension. Sven appeared stunned and somehow disappointed. Kincaid's jaw was set, his mouth a grim and serious line that was decidedly unlike his usual excessive friendliness. Kamille was simply angry, his fury smoldering quietly beneath his silence.

"Yes, well. Any questions?" Rondo asked.

"... this has to be a hoax," Selene's voice was firm as she spoke. "This situation does not make any sense on any level whatsoever."

"That's an understandable sentiment, Ms. McGriff, but I assure you that the Beyonder is quite real," Johnny said. "A pilot on the opposing side has even contacted him successfully."

"Still! I don't see what an omnipotent being would stand to gain from this, or why it would be recruiting in such an illogical way. There's no reason to put someone like me or Kamille into a war game, when there's no shortage of soldiers or mercenaries the Beyonder could be picking instead."

"This isn't a war game. It's some other type of test," Sven said.

"What kind of a test could this possibly be? There no obvious point to it..."

Sven shrugged. "If we knew what the point was, we could try to manipulate the outcome."

Selene blanched at that observation, because it was entirely correct. She fell into a troubled silence. The thought that the Beyonder was right, and she really couldn't imagine what sort of being he was, was profoundly upsetting to her.

"Sven's right. I think we're just bugs in a jar to this Beyonder, and he's shaking it to see what we'll do." Kincaid grimaced as he spoke. "The best thing to do would be not to fight, I guess, but if there's bystanders caught in the middle... I mean, we can't sit on our hands, right?"

"Sure we could," Kamille said. "You can't save anybody with a gun or a Mobile Suit. If we pick a fight with the other faction, civilians are going to get killed and we'll have blood on our hands."

It was a standard expression of pacifism, but one that sounded blasphemous given the Izumo's current position.

Domon gave voice to the group's collective shock, rising impulsively from his seat. "Coward!"

Rondo moved to seize control of the situation before it degenerated into another brawl. "That's enough! That's enough! Look, we've no idea what the Beyonder wants. It is not our practice to force people to fight, and I'll be happy to leave any conscientious objectors behind."

"Um. I don't mean to interrupt, but did anybody else notice that the Beyonder's speech changed?" Kira asked.

"What? No it hasn't," Gato said. He turned around to shoot Kira a look of dour confusion.

"Yuh-huh it has! The Beyonder said totally different stuff to us on the Granshirio," Garrod said.

"He's probably right," Rondo frowned. "The message I got from the Beyonder in Gold Frame was very different from what we heard just now, too."

"How was it different?" Selene asked.

"There wasn't all of that stuff about protecting. It was about... leading people, and bringing order to things," Kira said.

"And it named our faction's leader. I notice this one doesn't," Al added.

"Mine was personalized. I was told to wait at Loum to meet up with a man who would lead me to my allies. It didn't mention Michelo Chariot by name... but I believe that's who the Beyonder had in mind. But I met with Captain Ray's group first..." Rondo furrowed her brows. "... I'm starting to think Lieutenant Bayang is right.

Maybe this isn't a war game. Perhaps it's more like... some sort of personality test."

"But what's the point of that? What does an omnipotent being get out of testing us?" Selene asked.

"... I don't think the Beyonder is testing us as individuals. It's quite true that there's nothing for him to gain from that. But what if he's testing us as representatives of the human race?" Johnny asked. "The Beyonder has demonstrated over and over, since all of this began, that he has no true understanding of human beings. He may be omnipotent, but he is clearly not omniscient."

"Can you give me an example, Commander Ridden?"

"Very well, Ms. McGriff. We've had full stocks of medical supplies since the very beginning, but it's only now- on the third wave of reinforcements since this all began- that we've had a doctor who knows how to use them. I think the only reason why we have Doctor Bidan now is that during the second wave, we began to suffer casualties and critical delays due to our lack of medical professionals and other support crew. I believe the Beyonder observed this, and then compensated in our most recent wave of reinforcements. Now we have more support personnel, as well as pilots well-suited for active duty."

Selene made a tiny, horrified sound. "So... we're all trapped here, in the hands of some... some mad child-god? Puppets, dancing on strings?"

"The Beyonder can bring us here, but he can't tell us what to do-" Kincaid began, voice impassioned.

He fell silent when Kamille rose abruptly from his chair. He stared straight ahead, emptily, yet he clearly saw something the others didn't. His hands trembled.

"- we're not alone," Kamille said, voice barely above a whisper. "He's here."

"Who's here?" Rondo asked, clearly alarmed.

"The Beyonder!"

The name itself seemed to set off the other Newtypes, as if calling their attention to something at the edge of their mental vision.

"He's right!" Kira cried, all but jumping out of his seat.

Amuro scowled in anger. "- there's definitely pressure, but- where is he?"

"He's... it's like he's everywhere," Kincaid said.

The voice that spoke in the Beyonder's messages emerged from the monitor again. "Quite correct. I am indeed everywhere. And since you of the White Faction are proving so impressively clever, I shall grant you the boon of the information you seek. Since I granted a boon to the Black Faction, and since you are so close to figuring it out on your own, I feel you all have most certainly earned the boon of the truth."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

So, next time, we're going to be checking in with the Black Faction and setting the stage for things to come. Don't worry, though, we'll get back to what the Beyonder has to say to the White Faction. I just wanted to leave them at a point I felt was interesting.

Sven's memory of Stellar basically recalls a quick cameo she has in Stargazer. It's not quite blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but easy to forget about if you haven't seen Stargazer in awhile.

Kincaid gets his prosthetic rather late in Crossbone's first series, and I don't think we ever quite see how it works. Typically, there's the idea in anime and manga that clangy metal prosthetics would be superhumanly strong. Realistically, though, prosthetics tend to be weaker and a bit more delicate than organic muscle, since the materials they're made from can't flex. I decided to write Kincaid's prosthetic as a realistic rather than a superhuman one, basically because I thought that'd make him and his attitude a little more interesting.

-X-X-X-

Soundtrack du jour for this was Toshihiko Sahashi's soundtrack to Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger. The show's a goofy comedy, but a lot of the soundtrack is perfect as "quirky bombast" mood music.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	63. Chapter 63

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The fourth King of Heaven appears... or so it seems.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The Devil Gundam was growing, slowly but surely. Its three Kings of Heaven brought it the wreckage of the Granshirio and Dogos Gear in bits and pieces, dragging it to the impact crater where Devil Gundam had settled. Root-like green tentacles shot out to infest, synthesize, and then break down what was left of the ships. The Devil Gundam seemed to grow stronger and more vigorous, its great green metal roots winding deeply into the soil beneath the German forest.

From those roots had begun to erupt great metal snake-like things, not entirely creature or machine. At the top of undulating serpentine bodies that could be dozens of meters long sprouted surreal simulacra of Gundam Heads, each crowned by a cobra's hood. Each of the Gundam Heads could open its faceplate to reveal a fanged mouth, with a beam cannon sprouting from its throat.

The Gundam Heads were the most elementary unit in what the Kings of Heaven understood to be the Devil Gundam's self-produced legions. A second unit was revealed to them a few days later, when a half-dozen farmers from a nearby village drove up to the edge of Devil Gundam's blast crater. Before the Kings of Heaven could entirely decide what to do with them, the Gundam Heads fell upon them.

The farmers died sudden, violent deaths. The Gundam Heads did not blast them, but fell upon them like hungry animals.

About a day later, an aperture opened in the great misshapen Gundam head that formed the base of Devil Gundam's body. From it emerged a half-dozen Mobile Suits that resembled misshapen Zakus (or Bushi or GINNs) from the perspective of the Kings of Heaven. They were mono-eyed machines, but the central camera had the uncanny appearance of an unblinking human eye fashioned of metal. Into each machine's cockpit was wired the remnants of a farmer, each body so infested with Devil Gundam's DG cells that it had acquired the appearance of a metallic skeleton.

This was a Death Army unit, the Devil Gundam's foot soldier. The Devil Gundam made it quite clear to its Kings of Heaven, its thoughts flowing into them through their DG cell infections, that the Death Army's numbers would grow if it was brought more bodies to be remade as pilots. The converted pilots knew which village they had come from, and it promised roughly two hundred more lives that could be sacrificed to Devil Gundam.

The Kings of Heaven understood that Devil Gundam needed them to execute the details of the mission, to be commanders who could make decisions quickly in the field. The Devil Gundam was too weak to move itself, and it would take time for it to spread its Gundam Heads through the soil. The Kings of Heaven and the Death Army could move more freely, and needed only to solve the problem of bringing a great number of bodies back to Devil Gundam.

Fortunately, the wreck of the Dogos Gear suggested a solution to the problem. Aboard the ship's remains were canisters of a potent nerve gas, one that Haman Karn named G3. Devil Gundam synthesized the canisters with the rest of the ship's bulk, and seemed to have granted the ability to produce the gas at will to its Death Army.

The giant soldiers wielded weapons like huge metal-studded clubs, but with beam emitters set into the ends. In the base of each club was an emitter for the G3 nerve gas. Although chemical attacks of that sort were most effective in colonies, which by necessity had closed circulation systems, the gas was more than strong enough to kill a few hundred villagers before the Earth's winds dispersed it.

Then those villagers would be converted into Death Army pilots, each new unit with its own ability to vent G3 nerve gas and kill other humans en masse. Given enough time, all human beings alive on the Earth would become Death Army, part of Devil Gundam. To Devil Gundam, this would be the only sure way to achieve its mission.

Though the Devil Gundam appeared to be a terrible monster, it was not created to be such a thing. Deep within the recesses of its memory, Devil Gundam still understood some fragment of its prime directive. The Devil Gundam's AI was not self-aware enough to realize that it had been damaged at some point in the past, and therefore could only process part of its creators instructions.

As far as the Devil Gundam understood itself, its mission was to save the Earth's environment from damage caused by humans. In its damaged state, it seemed to the Devil Gundam that the easiest way to accomplish this was to end the existence of the human race in its current form. All humans would become its servants, whether as Death Army or Kings of Heaven, and so would share its prime directive.

It did not occur to the Devil Gundam that its Kings of Heaven might retain motivations beyond following the prime directive, or might even choose to manipulate its actions for their own ends. All the Devil Gundam knew was that it had to acquire a fourth King of Heaven and continue its growth in order to grow strong enough to execute its mission. The Beyonder responded to this desire, just as he had the desires of others who had fought in the Gundam War before.

-X-X-X-

The one who seemed fated to be the fourth King of Heaven did not hesitate to make his presence known. The day he appeared, the day before the gassing mission was to take place, an enormous golden craft the size of a cargo craft appeared in the sky over Devil Gundam's impact crater. A trail of red energy, like glowing flecks of blood, drifted to the ground below in its wake.

"Attention, mobile suit pilots! This is Alejandro Corner, commander of Celestial Being, chosen of the Beyonder, addressing you from the Alvatore! Please identify yourselves to me!"

The three Kings of Heaven were active in their Mobile Suits at the time, which came to stand beneath the gold monstrosity. All looked up, as human observers might.

"This is Michelo Chariot, Gundam Fighter of Neo-Italy and First King of Heaven! You may have been told to expect us. If not, come down for a parley and we'll... explain things."

"Haman Karn, Commander of Neo-Zeon and Second King of Heaven. We have suffered much in the Gundam War, Alejandro Corner, and would appreciate any aide you can offer."

"Rau Le Creuset, Third King of Heaven. Our savior has long looked forward to your arrival."

Alejandro couldn't be more pleased by the responses he received. These "Kings of Heaven" were clearly all people of great importance in their world, and so would be very fit to serve him. He had already decided that he was certainly fated to be the commander of Devil Gundam's forces, for who else could possibly have the skills to eclipse him?

"I see, I see...you must be the allies I was to expect here, then. Let us gather before the Devil Gundam for our parley!" The Alvatore began to circle as it slowly lowered its body toward ground, its gleaming gold landing gear folding into place.

-X-X-X-

The three Mobile Suits and the great Mobile Armor met before Devil Gundam's main body, atop ground that was criss-crossed by the mostly-buried green metal roots. The three Kings of Heaven were able to emerge from their machines rather quickly, but the Alvatore's pilot took his time making his way down the Mobile Armor's landing ramp.

Haman Karn felt forced to concede that Alejandro Corner was a sublimely handsome man, descending with his Normal Suit's helmet in hand so his fine features could be displayed to greater effect. Even while piloting, his pale red-brown hair was immaculately arranged. She might have felt herself tempted, if not for Rau's presence. Besides, the man's taste was clearly questionable; his Normal Suit was the same abominably gaudy gold shade as his Mobile Suit.

"Welcome, my allies! It is good to finally meet you. Did the Beyonder tell you about me?" Alejandro asked.

Michelo grunted in displeasure. He wasn't looking forward to dealing with yet another self-important pansy, no matter how useful a goon he might be. "Nope."

"It seems to be the Beyonder's practice to let us acquaint ourselves with each other," Rau said. "For now, we thank you for appearing so quickly."

"Think nothing of it, Le Creuset! It is my pleasure to join others who have, I'm sure, been recognized by the Beyonder for their great talents. Under my leadership, we cannot fail to attain a swift and elegant victory, whoever our rivals might be!"

"Your command?" Haman asked. She managed to keep her voice light, but felt rather called by the man's arrogance.

"Of course! We of the Corner family are born naturally to command. I cannot doubt that the Beyonder selected me for just that quality... and my magnificent Alvatore, of course." Alejandro closed his eyes in ecstacy, gesturing dramatically with one hand upon his chest.

Michelo's face darkened and Haman's mouth set itself in a disapproving scowl. Both seemed ready to lash out at Alejandro, but were interrupted as Rau thrust his arm in front of them, to hold them back. Rau's mask did not permit any to see what was in his eyes, but his mouth was curved upward in a conspiratorial smile.

"Of course, Mister Corner. But if you wish to lead us Kings of Heaven, there is one formality that must be observed first."

"Formality...?"

"You must ascend yourself, shouldn't you? To attain the ultimate power, the ability to transcend life and death, to become something... more, something better than human. Surely, you should become the fourth and greatest King of Heaven."

Michelo quickly caught on. "That's right. You wanna use Devil Gundam's power, don't you? It's one hell of a weapon. All the governments of my Earth are terrified of it."

Alejandro sensed he had committed some great faux pas, and was quick to smooth it over. "Of... of course! Rest assured, I shall do whatever is necessary, and with all possible haste."

Rau nodded to him, bowing slightly, and then took three steps back from where Alejandro stood. Michelo and Haman, did the same.

Alejandro watched them, puzzled. "What..." That was all he got out before a riot of wires and cables erupted from the great green metal root he stood upon. His voice rose into a ghastly scream as the cables began to burrow into his flesh, beginning the DG cell infection. There was no blood, but the pain was enough to throw Alejandro to the ground in a seizure of agony. Though less dramatic, the Gundam Heads were now falling upon the Alvatore in much the same way.

Rau stood and watched the spectacle passively, hands folded neatly behind his back, ZAFT greatcoat flapping in the breeze. There was a quiet smile upon his masked face, and a profound sense of satisfaction. "Long live the King."

-X-X-X-

It became clear soon enough to the others that Alejandro Corner, though he might now be a servant of Devil Gundam, would not be the fourth King of Heaven. Whatever the Devil Gundam looked for in its most elite lieutenants, Alejandro appeared to lack it.

Haman though it might be some defect of will. Where they had quickly gotten over the physical trauma of assimilation, even welcoming it, it seemed that something in Alejandro had broken. His self-importance lacked conviction, and sometimes he would begin to cry for no immediate reason. When he moved to do the Devil Gundam's bidding, it was as a puppet who did not enjoy his strings.

She found it more than a bit irritating, but Alejandro's suffering seemed to delight Rau and Michelo to no end. And though it was clearly not the case, both men were quite insistent that Alejandro was surely the Fourth King of Heaven and their divinely-appointed leader. In truth, it was quite obvious that everyone except Alejandro had a hand in making decisions about the group's actions.

It was early on the day of the planned gassing mission that Devil Gundam made clear what their next objective should be. Although it looked much stronger and more solid than it had aboard the Granshirio, the Devil Gundam transmitted a clear feeling of unhappiness to its servants.

They all left their machines and stood before the enormous Mobile Weapon, as if trying to divine its current purpose.

"Our forces will grow in great numbers soon, and yet... that is not enough," Haman said. She wondered what else the Devil Gundam might want.

"It's weak," Alejandro whispered. He kept his distance from the others, though not out of earshot.

"What a marvelous insight... though that is only to be expected of our leader." Rau didn't sound insincere, and yet Alejandro had begun to feel a deep sense of dread whenever he was in the man's presence. "Yes, after we've added these hundreds to the Death Army, the Devil Gundam will be at the limit of its strength."

Haman hadn't considered that the Devil Gundam had limits at all. "What makes you say that?"

"Still your thoughts for a moment and you'll feel it. A sense of weariness, like sickness unto death. The source of the Devil Gundam's life is running out."

Haman's eyes widened. "You're right... this won't do. The Izumo's pilots will come for us soon. The Devil Gundam must be ready for them."

"Feh. What's the big deal?" Michelo asked. "We just figure out the source of Devil Gundam's life energy and replace it."

"It won't be something simple, like a Mobile Suit's reactor. Devil Gundam could fix that itself," Haman said. "It must be something more complex, part of its biological systems..."

"The pilot!" Michelo exclaimed. "That's gotta it. The Devil Gundam's from my world... and in my world, a Gundam's strength is the pilot."

A roar feeling from Devil Gundam confirmed Michelo's guess. It cried out to them for a new pilot, not yet infected by DG Cells, strong and full of life. Then it could continue its growth and its mission.

Rau nodded. "So it is merely a question of where to obtain a new pilot..."

"It can't just be some idiot peasant, either. You want a strong Devil Gundam, you pick a strong pilot... somebody special. Somebody like us, if you get my drift."

"... someone sent by the Beyonder, you mean. One of those Izumo people?" Alejandro asked.

"Why not? Helps us and screws them over!" Michelo cackled. "What more could ya want?"

Haman frowned. "Would that really be wise? We'd run the risk of Devil Gundam's pilot being opposed to us."

"The Devil Gundam's will is greater than any human's." Rau spoke with a certainty that Alejandro found bone-chilling. "An unwilling pilot would be simply be assimilated, you can be sure of that."

"What are those Izumo people like, anyway?" Alejandro asked. "Do we even know how many of them there are?"

"Depends on how many little rats from our side decided to join 'em," Michelo hissed. "Around a dozen, either way."

Haman smirked. "But that's not going to be a problem for our faction anymore, will it? The Devil Gundam has ways of assuring loyalty to the cause."

Alejandro badly wanted to change the subject. "If you two know them, then which one would be a good pilot? Any operation should be have a target..."

"The best pick's obvious. The King of Hearts, Domon Kasshu," Michelo's grin became wolfish. "His idiot sidekick wouldn't be bad, either."

"He's also one of the riskiest targets," Haman said. "It would be far wiser, to my mind, to simply pick him off and go after a more obtainable target."

Michelo snorted. "Like who?"

"It seems to me... it seems to me, you'd find a strong life force among one of the Newtypes," Haman said. "Amuro Ray, though he's no less risky than the King of Hearts... or that other boy. The one in the blue Gundam... Kira Yamato."

Rau seemed to glance back at her, tilting his head so that one of his mask's eye-covers was visible. "... Kira Yamato?"

Haman paused. "You're familiar with him?"

"I am familiar with a Kira Yamato who is the Ultimate Coordinator, an engineered lifeform completely free of human defect or imperfection," Rau said. "He would be a very... fitting pilot for our Devil Gundam."

"Then let's do this smart way," Michelo said. "We'll sit back and wait for those Izumo goons to come and fight us on our turf. When the time comes, we see who's easier to grab, the King of Hearts or your Kira Yamato. No matter how it turns out, chances are we come out on top."

"An excellent idea, Mister Chariot. We shall let fate decide the identity of the Devil Gundam's next pilot."

Alejandro was unfamiliar with the names the others threw around. Yet, he felt with a certainty that most of them were probably doomed. Rau's reaction alone left him feeling bad for this Kira Yamato person, whoever he was.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Alejandro Corner and the Alvatore are from Gundam 00 S1.

G Gundam isn't explicit about exactly what the Death Army pilots are or where they come from, and I think you only see them roughly once in the series. They look an awful lot like zombies, though, so it seemed reasonable to me to interpret them as, well, DG Cell zombies.

Similar caveats apply to Gundam Heads spreading DG Cell infections, Devil Gundam being able to synthesize any technology it infests, and Devil Gundam needing a fresh pilot to increase its power level. Things happen in G Gundam to suggest these interpretations, but at no point in the show is it bluntly stated or shown that things definitely work this way.

I've had some reviews clamoring for a huge Black Faction roster and a bunch of chapters about them to create parity with the White Faction, and... well, that's not happening. This story arc is meant to be the one that addresses, in a concrete way, the differences between the Black and White faction. So while the rosters in earlier arcs were meant to be superficially similar, this time around I'm using a very different approach. I hope the logic of why I'm doing things the way I'm doing becomes clearer once I'm a bit farther into the story, so I can only ask readers to be patient with me.

In the meantime, I'll just reiterate what I said in author notes earlier about reviews requesting that so-and-so be added to the story: for the most part, I won't be able to take them. I know roughly what the rest of the plot is going to be and mostly which characters will be involved in it, and most requests end up being very contradictory to what I've got planned already.

That's not to say nobody should post requests, though. I enjoy reading them, and I think the feedback has helped me resolve a few rough patches in the story where I knew I had to accomplish something, but wasn't quite sure how to do it. Overall, though, I have my own story to tell, and want to finish it roughly as I originally envisioned it.

-X-X-X-

There was a request for an OP/ED for the show, so that seems an interesting thing to do with the music portion this chapter. The "anime style" songs I regard as as the OP/ED are Ami Suzuki's "Risk" (OP) and Two-Mix's Airmail From the Moon (ED). The English-language songs (perhaps from an impossibly big-budget TV dub) I think of as OP/ED are Muse's "Butterflies & Hurricanes" (OP) and Iron Maiden's "Rainmaker" (ED). Have your own songs you imagine for OP/ED? Feel free to mention them in a review. I'm always looking for new music, in all sorts of styles.

-X-X-X-

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

? / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	64. Chapter 64

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Beyonder has words with the Izumo's pilots, explaining much but raising troubling new questions.

The multi-media Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Complete silence followed the moments after the Beyonder first spoke to the Izumo's gathered pilots. For the newcomers, the event was too singularly strange to process. For those who had survived the Gundam War's last battle, the Sinking of the Granshirio, it felt too unreal to have such a long-held wish suddenly granted.

The Beyonder's voice continued on, emanating from the forward screen's speakers in an unnatural way that seemed to fill the room. "You are correct that the Gundam War is not a true war game, but instead a test. It is merely a test disguised as a war game, so that you would have an easier time understanding its parameters... though I expected some of you would be unsatisfied by my initial explanation. I must say, though, the probability of Johnny Ridden coming closest to the truth first seemed exceedingly low to me. I was expecting it from one of the Newtypes... or perhaps Loran Cehack, if he'd lasted a bit longer."

Amuro rose from his chair in a burst of anger. The light reference to Loran's death seemed somehow beyond the pale to him. "You bastard! You're the one who-"

"Captain! Captain Ray, I understand your feelings, but now isn't the time." Johnny lacked Domon's thunderous voice, but he still shocked Amuro into silence. Johnny then turned to face the viewscreen, to give himself the feeling of addressing a person rather than a disembodied voice. "Tell us about this test of yours, Beyonder. What are you testing, and how do we pass?"

"It is not passing or failing. It is more like an experiment, a procedure designed to test a hypothesis."

"Then what is your hypothesis?"

"My hypothesis is that human behavior is motivated by a fundamental impulse that I lack. I wish to understand this impulse, to understand its nature and learn if it is any value to a being such as myself."

Rondo arched an eyebrow. "Impulse? I don't understand."

"The word your kind coined for this impulse is..." There was a pause, as if the Beyonder was carefully choosing his next word. "... love. Yes, love. That is the closest approximation."

Silence reigned in the briefing room once again. It was the last response anyone there had expected to hear.

"Love?!" Kamille shouted. His voice continued to rise as he spoke, becoming a scream. "You crazy son of a bitch, what does any of this have to do with love?! What does killing people have to do with love?!"

The Beyonder sounded unflappable. "Was it not love of others that saw you to the end of the Gryps Conflict, and guided you from the great darkness your soul was pulled into? I do not believe I've misjudged your basic nature, Doctor Bidan, nor do I believe it has changed. Perhaps you've simply forgotten?"

Kamille sank back into his chair, mortified by the Beyonder's response. "You... how do you..."

"I see everything, Doctor Bidan."

"Wait, so you're saying our team's all about love of others? Self-sacrifice, doing right by your fellow man, all that good stuff?" Kincaid asked.

"Exactly. You would seek what is best for others, even at the sacrifice of yourself. I underestimated the strength of this impulse. It is why there are so few of you from the first wave left, even though your side would logically be said to be winning the Gundam War at this point."

"... w-what... what about the other team?" Kira asked. A terrible fear weighed down his voice.

"You were chosen because, at the time, you were motivated by a form of love wholly contradictory to self-sacrifice. You were motivated by love of self, above all others."

"What the hell?!" Garrod rose from his chair this time. His expression was incredulous. "It's one thing to call a guy like... like Heero or Al selfish, those guys are murdering assholes-"

"No! That's- that's not true! I can accept you being angry with me, Garrod, but you misunderstand my intentions!" Allelujah rose, his visible eye flashing in the artificial light. "Everything I've done from the beginning, from Celestial Being to following Treize, I did to create a peaceful world! A world free of war and suffering... a world where things like me won't be created!"

The Beyonder spoke. "Your other self is laughing at you, Allelujah Haptism. He knows you're lying."

"Other self?" Amuro asked. He glanced reflexively down at Al, as if trying to see some trace of another person.

Allelujah went silent. He realized, rationally, that of course the Beyonder would know about Hal. He just wasn't prepared to have it announced to the entire room.

The Beyonder continued. "It is not true that you hate yourself, but that you love and take pride in that hatred? To annihilate every trace of yourself, you destroyed all but one of the others your masters created, and then set out to annihilate war itself, so you could annihilate yourself and leave no trace behind. Is that not true? And is it not true that your other self would murder the world to survive but one day longer?"

"... damn you. Of course it's true. Why do you think I hate myself?" Al's emotion showed through only as a trembling that shook his once-resolute posture. His voice was barely above a whisper, his face downcast.

Garrod felt a sudden pang of sympathy for Al, but forced himself to speak on anyway. "... but Kira! What about Kira?! You want us to believe that the guy who won't even shoot to kill is supposed to be selfish?"

"Of course he's selfish! What else do you call an asshole who spews beams all over a battlefield, just to keep his hands clean?!" Shin's voice took on a shrill quality that many of the Izumo pilots had not heard for quite some time. "What else do you call some asshole who's fine with collateral damage, but not just shooting the enemy in front of him?!"

Garrod was stunned and more than a bit uncomfortable. "... uh, Shin, man, is there something you're not telling us? I mean-"

"It's true! It's all true! Everything Rau said about me at Jachin Due was right!" Kira's spoke between wracking sobs. "I was so stupid back then, but I just- I just wanted to make everything right, and save everybody, but no matter what I did people just kept dying, and every time, it was- it was like-" Kira seemed to lack the words for what it was like, and abruptly turned to flee the room and hide his sorrow-wracked face.

The anger in Shin's red eye drained away as he watched Kira leave. He already regretted what he'd said, but it was too late to take it back.

It was still a shock when Stellar slapped him, though. He felt ashamed more than hurt. "Shin was mean to Kira on purpose!" she spoke, through oncoming sniffles. "You shouldn't be mean to friends! Stellar is... Stellar is mad at you!" Stellar turned and stormed from the room, breaking into a saddened run only when she was near the door.

Shin slowly lowered himself back into his seat, and buried his ruined face in his hands. Garrod paused, then sat back down alongside him.

"Have you no further objections, Garrod Ran?" The Beyonder asked.

"Of course I don't. If Kira's supposed to be an asshole now, then what's a guy like me? Some kinda triple mega asshole, I guess. I know what I've done to stay alive, and I know... I know I'm not piloting the Gundam X for the best reasons."

The Beyonder spoke once more. "Are there no further objections among you?"

Heero crossed his arms. "I have no pretensions about myself."

"I've made my motivations clear enough already," Rondo said. "And as for someone like Stellar, I'm sure 'just following orders' would fit your bizarre definition of selfishness, Beyonder."

"I object." It was a surprise when Sven spoke. His eyes were earnest, almost fevered. "Why was I sent here, to these people? I've just followed orders for as long as I can remember. How could you call someone like me anything but selfish?"

"Your assessment of yourself is outdated," The Beyonder spoke. "That was true once, but since then you have changed."

Sven flushed, and looked away from the viewscreen as if embarrassed.

"So what you said about 'fundamental nature' in humans... that's an impermanent quality?" Johnny asked.

"Of course it is. You humans are extremely impermanent beings. Change is clearly fundamental to you, though not in a way that I entirely understand yet," The Beyonder said. "I do not understand what compels you humans to choose between love of self and love of others. It only stands to reason that one impulse would be the stronger, and chosen uniformly by the most successful humans. I intend to learn which one it is through this experiment."

"Your experiment is invalid!" Selene spoke quickly, as if acting on a sudden idea. "You can't possibly learn anything of true scientific value from this. These are completely artificial circumstances. How do you know our behavior here says anything meaningful about human nature, if you have nothing to compare it against? Your observations here are meaningless unless compared against a valid control group."

There was a long silence before the Beyonder responded. "That is untrue."

"How?"

"The Dark History is my control group."

Selene blinked in confusion. The term was wholly alien to her. "The what? I don't-"

"He means history. Our original... timelines, where we came from." Amuro's voice was tight with suppressed anger as he spoke.

"Captain?" Rondo asked. "How do you-"

"Later, I'll explain it later," Amuro said.

Selene paused to think this over, her expression slowly becoming a smile. "Your experiment is still flawed. When you brought all of us here, you tampered with history and changed it! You only know what would happen in a world where all of us suddenly disappeared."

"Ah, I see what you're getting at... no, that's untrue. I haven't subtracted anything from the Dark History."

Selene faltered. "But... but then how..."

"What is the meaning of the mathematical expression, 'infinity divided by two'?" The Beyonder asked.

"Infinity divided by any finite number is also infinity..." Selene suddenly trailed off. Her eyes went wide in shock as she realized what the Beyonder was implying. "... wait, so you..."

"Exactly. Human consciousness is metaphysically infinite, though your biological components limit your understanding. A fraction of an infinity is also infinity," The Beyonder sounded somehow pleased. "You aren't present in my Gundam War because I removed you from the Dark History. You are all pieces I broke off of your original consciousnesses, creating perfect duplicates of who you were at that time. Your bodies are, molecule for molecule, copies of the ones you possess in the Dark History."

A wave of panic and terror swept the room. The pilots all began shouting at the Beyonder together.

"Please!" The Beyonder called for silence, his voice cutting through their minds like a psychic impulse. "Please do not be afraid. The matter I can create is identical to the Dark History's matter in all respects. You are still fundamentally yourselves. My experiment could have no meaning if that were not true... and if I had cheated, and tampered with you, the Newtypes would surely know."

Amuro's brows furrowed. "I don't know about that..."

"No, he's right," Kamille said. "Newtypes demonstrate a full sense of proprioception, even when the relevant parts of the brain or body are damaged. If these bodies weren't perfect duplicates, we'd know instantly, even if the Oldtypes might not."

Kincaid looked impressed. "Wow, seriously? I didn't know that!"

Kamille scowled. "I could probably fill a reference encyclopedia with things you don't know."

The barb didn't dim Kincaid's grin at all. "That's probably true! You oughta write that stuff down, though. It'd come in handy in my time!"

Kamille had clearly become too irritated to speak any further.

Gato's voice filled the silence. "So are you saying we're not real, Beyonder? Was your promise to send us home some sort of impossible sham?"

"What is an infinity added to an infinity?" The Beyonder asked.

"It's still infinity. So what you're saying is... you'd "send us home" by adding the part of our consciousness that experienced the Gundam War back to our original consciousness," Selene responded.

"Yes. It would create an individual who was fully conscious of the experience of the Gundam War and all he or she learned there, even though that experience happened outside of linear time. Your brains are well-adapted to handling sudden influxes of information, so the procedure will cause you humans no harm," The Beyonder said.

Nobody looked especially convinced, but Selene kept talking. "Setting all of that aside... this experiment is still invalid. Everything you've told us just compromises your method. How do you know we won't start doing things at random, just to throw off your results?"

"I have considered this outcome, and the chances of it occurring now are exceedingly low. Anyone likely to behave in that fashion would have already begun doing so," The Beyonder replied. "At this point, I do not think any of the information I've given you will significantly change your actions. Devil Gundam is too completely your antithesis, and your range of probable reactions to it is quite limited."

"- Devil Gundam!" Domon said, interrupting Selene's confused response. "Beyonder, you bastard, tell me who pilots the Devil Gundam here!"

"The identity of Devil Gundam's pilot is already known to you, Domon Kasshu."

Heero jerked forward in his seat. He glared at Domon accusingly. "You didn't tell me that."

Pain and a terrible rage suffused Domon Kasshu's face. "... it doesn't matter! He's a traitor... a traitor I've already vowed to defeat! All I wanted was to be certain of that man's whereabouts."

"You may ask me one more question, pilots of the White Faction. At that point, by my calculations, you will have received a boon of equal value to what I have given your opponents."

"How many units are with Devil Gundam, and who are the pilots?" Rondo asked. "That's the information we need the most right now."

"There are four units of importance aligned with the Devil Gundam right now," The Beyonder began.

"The Four Kings of Heaven," Domon whispered.

"You are already aware of Haman Karn and Michelo Chariot, and their units, the Qubeley and Neros Gundam. They have been joined by two reinforcements: Alejandro Corner in the Alvatore, and Rau La Creuset in a GuAIZ."

The Beyonder paused there. No one aboard the ship recognized Corner's name, but mention of Rau immediately drew the notice of the remaining Cosmic Era pilots.

"The butcher of Jachin Due!" Rondo hissed. "A genocidal maniac. I should be surprised it's taken you this long to make him your plaything, Beyonder."

"Uh, wait, who is this guy? This kinda sounds important," Kincaid asked.

"He was a ZAFT commander... before my time," Shin said. "He rose to power with the Zala faction, and he was an extremist, I guess? He died at Jachin Due."

"An 'extremist'!" Rondo snorted. "Please. He didn't care anything for Zala or ZAFT either one. He spent the entire war funneling information to Blue Cosmos, so he could increase the body count. If Yamato hadn't picked him off at Jachin Due, I promise you, Rau would still be stirring the pot."

"What?! You... you don't know that!" Shin protested.

"Don't I?" Rondo sneered. "You should know by now, boy, I make sure House Sahaku knows everything worth knowing about world affairs."

"Well... it won't be so bad this time, right?" Shiro said. "I mean you guys just said Kira could beat him, and Kira's fighting with us, so..."

"That's what we thought about Domon Kasshu and Michelo Chariot," Gato said. "And you've been here long enough to see how that turned out, Lieutenant Amada."

"Oh." Shiro frowned. "That... that really sucks."

The Beyonder resumed speaking. "A fifth reinforcement will arrive at a later point in this timeline. If your faction moves quickly, you will be able to strike at the Devil Gundam before the fourth unit arrives. If you tarry, and Devil Gundam receives its next reinforcement, then victory becomes significantly less probable for your faction."

"I have a final question, Beyonder," Johnny asked. "It's not about the Gundam War, either."

"Speak."

"Creating matter, manipulating souls... exactly what are you, Beyonder? Some kind of god?"

The Beyonder's voice changed its tone for the first time in the entire conversation. Something about it sounded sorrowful. "A god would have a people of his own. No, I am... I am beyond any concept you humans have devised. I am best regarded as a conscious universe."

It was on that note that the Beyonder's presence evaporated from the room. The starfield projected on the forward viewscreen suddenly went white, as the recording originally played for the others came to an abrupt end. The enormity of the silence, for the newly-christened White Faction, was crushing.

-X-X-X-

In case you're wondering, I do have a rationale worked out for how the Beyonder assigned each character in the story to a particular side. If anyone is curious to know them, make a request and I'll fulfill it in future author's notes. Some of them are obvious, others are designed to hinge on the Beyonder viewing the character in an unusual way. It's worth noting that the Beyonder's opinions are not really my own. Some of the choices are meant to seem a bit baffling at first blush.

The idea that Kira's super-pacifistic fighting style could pose some sort of threat to bystanders seems to be an issue Gundam SEED Destiny was interested in looking at early in its run, but quickly sidelined as Kira's popularity took over the show. I thought it'd be interesting to bring up here, though it's worth noting that we never see Kira's stray fire actually cause any significant harm at any point in Gundam SEED.

Mathematics involving infinity is actually an extremely complex field, as is the proper design and execution of experimental procedures. The way Selene brings them up here is simplified, so as not to bog down the story too much with details. The real point is just to show how everything the Beyonder's doing will end up working, and give it some sort of theoretical real world underpinning.

-X-X-X-

For a chapter this cosmic and spacey, writing it demanded Muse. Lots and lots of Muse.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	65. Chapter 65

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: In the wake of the Beyonder's strange visit, the Izumo crew must decide how to face the Devil Gundam, and Amuro must reveal a terrible secret.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"Is he gone?" Rondo's eyes darted left and right. It was an impulsive reflex; rationally, she knew the Beyonder to be without any visible form.

Kamille exhaled, slumping in his chair. "... as far as I can tell."

The tension that had built in the room during the Beyonder's brief, strange visit dissipated all at once. Relieved sighs broke the silence, and postures eased.

Garrod glanced over at Al and Shin. "Uh, hey, are you guys okay?"

"No," Shin said. He was still hanging his head, voice thick with emotion.

Al's reaction was guarded, for he knew very well how Garrod felt about him. "Why do you care?"

"Because I'm only a dick some of the time!" Garrod scowled back. He also knew how he'd felt about Al, and now felt strangely guilty about it.

"Hmph. I'll manage." Al's expression softened, though he couldn't muster up a smile yet.

"To heck with coffee, I should've brought a keg," Kincaid sighed.

"No way, zero g ruins good beer," Shiro laughed. "I'd kill for couple shots of whiskey, though..."

"While I sympathize, gentlemen, I'd like to have figured out a strategy before you all go drink yourselves silly," Rondo said. "Though when we're finished, trust me, you more than have my permission to collapse into your cups."

"Lady Sahaku is right. The encounter with the Beyonder was... something, but we still need to stick to our agenda," Johnny said.

"We know we're facing Devil Gundam and its four escorts. We've fought Haman Karn and Michelo Chariot often enough, and Rau Le Creuset's reputation precedes him. That just leaves this Corner person as a wild card. So what do we do, gentlemen?"

"The Devil Gundam is trapped on Earth for now. We'll have to return there to face it," Domon said. "We need to be there as quickly as possible, but... Shining Gundam needs repair."

"Almost everything needs repairs," Shiro added. "If we go now we're not gonna have much to fight with. The super-units, maybe, but everybody else would be left sitting on their hands."

"And I need something to pilot," Heero said. "Not just any Mobile Suit, either. There's too much at stake now."

"The easiest solution to our resupply problem seems to be swinging by Von Braun," Amuro said. "We could easily get back to full fighting strength that way. It'd cost us time, though. At least a week, maybe two."

"What if we divided our forces?" Gato asked. "Drop one team off to reconnoiter and weaken the enemy if possible, while the other returns to Von Braun to resupply."

"Can the Izumo achieve escape velocity, Lady Sahaku?" Johnny asked.

"Not without a mass driver and plasma boosters," Rondo said. "Remember, we don't have anything like your Minovsky reactors. If the Izumo re-enters Earth's atmosphere, it's going to be stuck there. It'll be limited to naval operations, too."

"So you're saying the ship would be a sitting duck on Earth," Gato said.

"More or less. It definitely wouldn't be an asset," Rondo said. "Drop teams of Mobile Suits would be able to operate more freely, and I seriously doubt the ship would be in any danger if we simply left it in orbit."

"Then what happens if we have to retreat? We'd be stuck on Earth," Kincaid said. "Nothing against Earth, but my sea is the sea of stars, if you get my drift."

Rondo sighed. For once, she did not seem entirely confident. "At this point, Mister Nau, I don't think retreat is an option. I think it's time to bet everything on a final assault on Devil Gundam."

Kincaid's expression hardened, voice becoming somber. "Look, I know you're probably sick of fighting. I don't know how long you've been at this. But I just got here, and I'm not ready to give up-"

Rondo scowled at him. "Nobody said anything about giving up-"

"Going into a fight with no way out is giving up!" Kincaid shouted. "Accepting death is giving up on life!"

"He does have a point, Lady Rondo," Johnny said, trying to defuse the situation.

"Besides, how much sense does it make to leave a bunch of guys cut off behind enemy lines?" Shiro added. "We need a clear line of retreat."

"There's clear or obvious possibilities. Any way of launching terrestrial Mobile Suits would require a mass driver or a shuttle, and then you're back to the sitting duck problem," Selene said.

"... shuttle boosters."

All eyes were on Amuro the moment he spoke, though his demeanor was utterly distracted. He was gazing off in the distance. "We can salvage some from Anaheim, and make more from shuttle parts..."

Kamille twisted around in his seat in surprise, looking directly at Amuro for the first time. "- like we did during Gryps?!"

"Exactly like Gryps. This situation is more like Gryps than anything else I've been through," Amuro said. He wasn't willing to meet Kamille's eyes yet, but his voice was even.

"I don't understand. Shuttles?" Johnny asked.

"Shuttle boosters. Basically, you take the booster rockets you'd use for a civilian shuttle launch and strap them to a Mobile Suit storage bed." Amuro began to gesture as he spoke, pantomiming the construction process in broad strokes. "Use software workarounds to map flight controls to the cockpit, then throw on some heat shielding if you need it. It works in a pinch for getting Mobile Suits into space."

"We could drop the shuttle boosters to Earth in HLVs. I've seen Von Braun's shipyards, they're sitting idle," Gato said. He sounded genuinely impressed by the scheme, perhaps owing to its desperate ingenuity.

"Devil Gundam's in Europe, right? There's gotta be something we could use as a landing site, and to launch if we need to bail out. And ideally, it'd be a facility that'd let us secure the HLV," Shiro said.

"Brussels," Heero's voice always felt somehow abrupt when he spoke. "It's a seat of power in my timeline. The facilities we need will be there."

"Uh... how do you know that, exactly?" Selene said. "This world seems so confusing, bits and pieces of things scattered everywhere..."

"I've already checked."

"What? But we've hardly been back on the ship..." Rondo was incredulous.

"Heero's not one to let grass grow under his feet," Al said. "If he says it's there, then it's there."

Shiro spoke, voice tentative. "So, I'm all for this? But a way off the planet isn't a plan of attack. How are we going to fight this thing? What does it even do?"

"The Devil Gundam's full capabilities haven't been tested yet. But it can, in theory, self-repair, self-replicate, and self-evolve," Domon said. "It has beam cannons, and it can manufacture foot soldiers for its Death Army. Defeating it will be no small task, not even for the likes of you. It wiped out nearly the entire army of Neo-Japan, in an instant."

The room went silent. Even pilots who thought they'd seen everything with machines like Turn-A weren't quite prepared to hear that they were going to fight what sounded like a miniature manufacturing plant, on top of another "immortal" regenerating machine. "Self-evolution" was a phrase too vague to conjure up any particular nightmares.

"Mister Kasshu, Mister Yuy, would it be fair to say that you consider the Devil Gundam a threat of apocalyptic proportions?" Rondo asked.

Heero nodded. "Affirmative."

"The Devil Gundam could easily destroy the world," Domon said. "We cannot afford to underestimate it!"

"Then I think our plan of action is quite clear." Rondo spoke with a cold, brutal authority. "While we're on the moon, we should send a team to DOME to salvage Satellite Cannon parts for Mister Ran's Gundam X."

Shocked gasps went up from the room, at least from those who understood what the Satellite Cannon was already.

The one exception was Garrod, who suddenly grinned in excitement. "Yeah! That's right! I don't care that Devil Whatsit does, one dead-on shot from the Satellite Cannon would wipe any superweapon out!" He was nearly out of his chair with excitement, before he noticed the dismayed reactions from the rest of the room. "... and that's good, right?"

"No! The Satellite Cannon is an abominable weapon!" Amuro protested. "What's the point of saving the world from Devil Gundam if we're just going to destroy it ourselves?!"

"Hey, wait, what?" Garrod sounded almost hurt. "What's this end of the world stuff? The Satellite Cannon doesn't destroy anything it's not pointed at! It's just a big energy cannon. I'm not going to use it on anything that's not Devil Gundam."

Gato found Garrod's reaction bizarrely cavalier, until the probable reasons for it sank in. "... the boy doesn't know, does he?"

"Of course he doesn't know. Who'd be there to tell him?" Johnny said.

Amuro was at a loss for words. Garrod sounded confident, but behind that was a terrible earnestness. Garrod truly did not believe the Satellite Cannon was evil, and that forced Amuro to reconsider his feelings.

Rondo seized the opening to speak. "DOME shut himself down because he didn't want to escalate the Gundam War. If Domon Kasshu's assessment of the Devil Gundam is correct, then the Beyonder has already escalated it to levels previously unimaginable. In a situation like that, asking DOME to activate the Satellite Cannon is merely prudent. Remember, there are civilians trapped down on Earth with that thing."

Bringing up civilians had the desired effect. Using the Satellite Cannon was risky, but abandoning the innocent obviously wouldn't sit well with the Beyonder's hand-picked white faction.

Amuro's shoulders sank as he clearly relented. "I suppose you're right. If DOME can be convinced, things probably are that bad."

"We can't simply wipe out the Devil Gundam with sheer firepower if the machine is programmed to regenerate itself. To stop it for good, we'd have to annihilate the pilot and cockpit block." Heero turned, his eyes locking coldly onto Garrod. "Are you prepared to do such a thing? To play the executioner, rather than the hero?"

Garrod hesitated, perhaps proving Heero's point. "Well... yeah, okay, so I'm not exactly a hardcore soldier. I wouldn't be happy about it, but... I mean, the Devil Gundam's pilot is a bad guy, right? Some kinda crazy asshole? I mean, how do you end up piloting something like that if you're not?!"

Domon's voice was thick with emotion when he spoke. "You are correct, Garrod Ran. The Devil Gundam's pilot is a remorseless villain. We truly have no choice."

"So... I mean, I've got no choice. It's do or die time now." Garrod's voice was not heavy with regret or emotion. His eyes were firm and calm, though he felt a little weak in the knees. "So... I mean, yeah, of course I'll do it."

Heero did not sound entirely satisfied, but he seemed to take Garrod at his word. "Remember that. If you fail, the mission fails."

"So what's our plan if DOME doesn't want to activate?" Shiro asked.

"Probably the same thing, but we use somebody else as the big gun," Kincaid said. "I've got no taste for killing, but if this Devil Gundam is some kinda crazy Mobile Weapon thing... yeah, there's probably not another way."

"Quite right. So it sounds like we have a plan of action in place, gentlemen. I suggest you all get to executing it..." Rondo trailed off as she saw Amuro rise from his seat. She tilted her head as she glanced up at him. "... Captain?"

"Um. One more thing before we adjourn. It's about Turn-A... those things I said I had to talk about? Um, like I told Johnny, for those of you who were there..." Amuro wasn't often so nervous he babbled, but he wanted to get this over with, and as quickly as possible.

Many of the pilots seemed baffled, and a few seemed annoyed, but Rondo merely nodded her head. "Of course, Captain."

With that, Amuro made his way down to the front of the room. He checked over Hachi, to make sure the Beyonder's brief, strange visitation hadn't damaged him at all. Once it was clear that he was fine, then Amuro being bringing up file footage he'd stored on the little tablet.

"Okay. So some of you already know this, but Turn-A uses an AI-assisted operating system, and the AI is fully self-aware..."

"- really?!" It was no surprise when Selene's eyes lit up.

"Ah... right, right. We can talk about it in more detail later, Ms. McGriff," Amuro said. He clearly wanted to rush through this part. "For the record, Turn-A has consented to his use, and... no, I'm not quite sure yet why he doesn't just pilot himself."

Amuro paused to clear his throat. "Anyway... when Turn-A decided to begin repairing itself during the last battle, it activated another weapon system. It's called the Moonlight Butterfly. It uses the same nanite swarm that powers the self-repair system, but..." He paused, unsure how to continue.

"Can we use it against Devil Gundam?!" Gato asked. "An attack on the molecular level would surely override its self-repair systems."

"I, I can't... no, we can't do that. We cannot ever, ever use the Moonlight Butterfly!"

Rondo looked skeptical. "The same way we can't use DOME?"

"No! The Satellite Cannon is a popgun compared to the Moonlight Butterfly! It's a thousand times worse than Devil Gundam. I don't even know that we should be fielding Turn-A anymore."

"Captain, what on Earth does this Moonlight Butterfly do that's so terrible? Just tell us, quit dissembling," Johnny said.

"It kills everything! It just... that's just it exactly! Once the nanite swarm is active it begins disassembling all inorganic machines and tools within range. It converts the matter it disassembles into more nanomachines, and they go on disassembling any other machines they encounter, and it just keeps going until the swarm runs out of energy," Amuro began gesturing again, movements a bit frantic.

"It's grey goo?!" Kamille exclaimed.

"H-how long does it take to run out of energy?" Al asked. "How far would the effect go?"

"I don't know! I've run simulations... if I started it here, it could get somewhere past the asteroid belt... maybe even Jupiter. It would consume the Earth and probably the Moon, that much is certain. Do you understand how bad this is now? Every tool, every vehicle, every Mobile Suit... the Moonlight Butterfly would destroy it all, in an instant. You'd all die, every Spacenoid would die, even more people on Earth would die..."

"... how long have you had this Mobile Suit?" Sven asked.

"Since the very beginning," Johnny said, gravely. "Months and months."

"So... from the very beginning of the War Game, Turn-A's pilot has had the power to end it all, instantly? And no one's ever had the Mobile Suit who wanted to do that? Who even tried?" Sven seemed to have a hard time believing what he was saying.

"Of course there wasn't..." Rondo began. "Not in this faction, not the way the Beyonder's been choosing sides. At one point, I would've done it without hesitation, but now..."

"So Loran could've..." Shin began, then paused. "... he could've just blown us all away at the start, but instead he... he chose to die instead of abandon us?" He sounded like he was going to cry.

Amuro couldn't say with complete certainty that Shin's guess was wrong, but it seemed kinder to pretend otherwise. "I'm not sure that Turn-A would've used the Butterfly back then, no matter what the circumstance. But after things dragged on, and he remembered me..." Amuro began. "... he decided it was a risk he was willing to take. But once he did, the Beyonder brought in Devil Gundam to even the scales."

"But he didn't really even the scales, did he?" Johnny said. "It sounds to me this Moonlight Butterfly of yours would turn the Devil Gundam to dust just as well as anything else. You could win the Gundam War right now, Captain Ray, if you were willing to accept the rest of us as collateral damage."

"No! Don't even say that, not even as a hypothetical! Killing everyone to win isn't an option!"

"I get it! This is all just part of the Beyonder's test!" Kincaid suddenly exclaimed. The others stared at him. "Isn't it? Our side basically has a win button, and has always had a win button, except the only way to use it is to give up on our beliefs! And that's what the Beyonder is testing, right? Why everyone isn't just a rat bastard all the time?"

"That has to be it. This situation would make no sense for a war game, but for a test of principles, it's perfect," Selene said. "That's why The Beyonder picked a machine with an AI system managing its superweapon. It sounds to me like the only way to get permission to use the Moonlight Butterfly is to prove you're the kind of person who would never, ever want to use it."

"We shouldn't ignore it as a fall-back, though," Heero said. "Having it means that if things go poorly against Devil Gundam, we have a self-destruct button."

"That's right," Gato nodded. "Even if we can't win cleanly, we can deny victory to the other side. That would at least let us cut madmen like Treize off at the knees."

"Hey, uh, can we stop talking about killing everybody to win? Didn't we just say we weren't going to do that?" Shiro said. "I mean, it sounds to me like the Captain's telling us about this stuff so we don't set it off, not so we can become nanite suicide bombers."

"Desperate times..." Gato said. His voice was dark, his eyes cold.

"But they're not that desperate!" Kincaid said. "You guys have made it this far without blowing up the world, why start talking about it now? I don't see any dead men in this room. We've got that DOME thing and a good plan, so let's just go back to beating Devil Gundam the old-fashioned way."

Kincaid's speech didn't seem entirely convincing, but the subject was much too big and the pilots much too tired to drag the argument out much further.

Selene was the only one who wasn't somber, her eyes shining with delight. "Captain, surely you'll let me study this Turn-A of yours? As much as he permits himself to be studied?"

"I- o-of course, but... ah, I'm not quite finished yet..."

"Please continue," Rondo said. "What on Earth did you decide was a worthy follow-up to telling us about your Gundam's invincible genocide weapon?"

"It's... it's information, mostly. You see, Turn-A's ended up in a position where it had to use the Moonlight Butterfly before..."

"Of course. How else would the machine know what it did?" Al said.

"... it's used the Moonlight Butterfly several times. Several times, spaced out over a very, very long span of years. Incredibly long. Seriously, unimaginably long..."

Amuro's dissembling was having a poor effect on the room. It was clear that, once again, there was something the Captain just didn't want to say. Most of them were able to restrain themselves, but one was in far from the best frame of mind.

"What of it, Amuro Ray?!" Domon shouted.

"There's only one Earth!" Amuro blurted out. This revelation was so far beyond what the others expected, that no one could even think of how to respond to it.

Amuro repeated himself, his voice slower and graver this time. "There's only one Earth, and only one timeline. It's just... our civilizations were destroyed, over and over again, by the Moonlight Butterfly."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

It's worth noting that Turn-A continuity explicitly mentions only one use of the Moonlight Butterfly, at the beginning of the Correct Century.

That said, I think it's fairly likely that the Dark History was altered several times by a use of the Moonlight Butterfly. It's one of the simplest and most effective ways to explain how the technology bases and Earthsphere of the various Gundam series can change so much as you go from one "setting" to the next, while keeping all events occurring in the same timeline.

Just to be clear on where my stance and my character's stance differ, though: Amuro is speculating a bit when he says that it's responsible for every single rise and fall of civilization, and there's a fair chance he's not entirely correct. The next chapter will go into this in more detail.

I don't actually know that zero g ruins beer, or has any effect on it. It just seemed like the kind of thing Federation grunts would end up telling each other, whether it was true or not. In my experience, soldiers have a lot of superstitions like that.

Shuttle boosters are an actual thing from Zeta Gundam. I'm theorizing a bit about how you'd make one and what sort of technology they are, but in the show they do basically what Amuro describes here. HLVs are also an authentic piece of Universal Century technology, though most write-ups I've found (and in-series depictions) are a little vague about the particulars of how they work. I'll be improvising a little bit here, too, though trying to keep it plausible.

The idea that Garrod doesn't really know how the Satellite Cannon works is a fairly strict reading of Gundam X canon. Most of the exposition about it isn't made clear until the next-to-last episode, and this Garrod is clearly earlier from much earlier in the series.

The Moonlight Butterfly doesn't fit the strict definition of a 'grey goo' reaction, which is a fairly rigidly-defined theoretical phenomena. That said, it seemed to me that someone would probably compare the two, as they're both apocalyptic scenarios involving rampant nanites.

-X-X-X-

Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Life intervened, as it has a tendency to do. But don't worry about my abandoning the story. At this stage in the game, I'm in it for the long haul. It's just a matter of finding the time to get it all written out to my satisfaction.

I actually didn't listen to any music while writing this chapter that I hadn't listened to before. So, nothing new to recommend. Sorry about that!

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	66. Chapter 66

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The Dark History is revealed, and the Gundam War's stakes become impossibly high.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"So, this is my best guess as to what happened." Amuro was using Hachi's main screen as a whiteboard now, scribbling a crude diagram with his finger. "When Turn-A was built, its AI somehow incorporated data from the RX-78-2's original computer systems. It was probably a copy or back-up... still, based on that, I'm thinking the Universal Century is the beginning of the Dark History, right here."

Amuro jabbed a black dot on the screen with his thumb, the image on Hachi's screen mirrored by the room's forward project. "Loran brought Turn-A to us, and by then, Turn-A had developed some sort of understanding of how time passed. I don't think it's possible that anyone here came from a point farther in the future than Turn-A itself, because Turn-A's data banks seem to incorporate data from many different timelines. So let's say the Correct Century is the end of known history."

At the right side of the screen, Amuro jabbed a second dot into place. "I think Turn-A is probably built toward the end of the Universal Century, when our technology had advanced to some point never again achieved in the history of mankind. The first time the Moonlight Butterfly activates, probably thousands and thousands of years after even Kincaid's time, it wipes every trace of our civilization off the map."

Using his forefinger, Amuro connected the two dots. He jabbed a series of hash marks through the line, spacing them widely apart. "The rest of the timelines take place between the Universal Century and the Correct Century. It seems like they'd have to be the result of humans trying to recreate civilization, and doing things a little differently each time. It's not clear from Turn-A's data what order things happened in... and I'm not sure it matters. Every time, someone ended up activating Turn-A and wiping the slate clean."

"That's impossible!" Selene protested. "The timescale of something like this would have to be ridiculously long. How could we all still be basically similar human beings, from roughly similar Earths? How could the species go for millions of years without evolving in any way at all, or the Earth go that long without the continents drifting into new places?"

"Those are good questions. The actual answer, I guess, is that I just don't know," Amuro sounded regretful. "I figure lots of things could happen between each cycle to make it hard for anyone to find evidence of previous civilizations. Anything that could survive the Butterfly would have to be buried deep underground, probably too deep to be recovered easily."

"There is certainly the possibility of devolution occurring between cycles. That could do much to explain why human history is little more than our species jogging in place," Gato said. He sounded uncharacteristically philosophical.

Rondo scowled. "Nonsense. Evolution doesn't run backwards."

"Nor does it run forwards, Lady Rondo. Evolution has no goal and runs in no particular direction. In an era of space flight and Mobile Suits, it is the thinking man that survives and reproduces. In a world without even basic tools? Cunning brutes would quickly come to dominate. Within a few generations, mankind would be no better than Neanderthals."

"And then when we reinvent the wheel, we begin to change accordingly. When we've changed enough and become tool-users again, it's not long before we're back in space and building Mobile Suits," Al added.

Kamille leaned back in his chair, speaking tiredly. "I guess you could toss out a similar explanation for continental drift. If that's just cyclical, then the continents would drift in and out of a Pangaea-like land mass over and over again. There might be minor changes in the shapes of coasts and mountain ranges over time, but how would anyone know the difference?"

Silence settled over the room. The Dark History was a weighty idea in itself, and the science that might (or might not) lie behind it was no easier to comprehend.

"... alright. Let's say this 'Dark History' concept of yours is absolutely true, Captain. What's the immediate upshot? What does it mean for us in our current situation?" Johnny said.

"Well... I guess the biggest question is, do we want to retire Turn-A?" Amuro asked. "I mean... how much sense does it make to keep fielding something like this?"

"It's too late for that. We've already opened Pandora's Box," Heero said. "Closing it now would only deny us hope."

Garrod twisted around in his seat. "Heero, man, when did you begin talking so fruity?"

Heero glowered down at him. Though his face was stony, he still betrayed a hint of embarrassment. "It's a reference. You wouldn't understand."

Garrod did his best not to laugh too loudly.

"It is a fair point, regardless of how it was made," Domon said. "The Beyonder has already changed the balance of power in the Gundam War based on Turn-A's awakening. Retiring it now would only leave us at an even greater disadvantage against Devil Gundam."

"Putting Turn-A in proximity of Devil Gundam could be really, really dangerous," Amuro said. "Devil Gundam seems to use its own nanites to infest and control other Mobile Suits, granting them its self-repair abilities. Turn-A would absolutely decide to unleash the Butterfly before it would allow itself to be infected by Devil Gundam, and I don't think I'd be able to do anything to stop it."

"That's right. Devil Gundam's DG cells..." Domon said. "From the day we found Turn-A intact after our first battle on Earth, I suspected it possessed a power similar to Devil Gundam's."

"You were right. The nanites that comprise the Moonlight Butterfly also act as Turn-A's self-repair system. Hostility toward nanites that belong to other AI units seems to be part of their programming."

"And the Devil Gundam certainly has a primitive intelligence of its own," Domon added.

"So chances are we're not just fighting a group of lunatics, but regenerating lunatics?" Rondo asked.

"That is correct," Heero said. "It's unlikely Michelo and Haman, at the least, would survive re-entry without being infected by Devil Gundam."

"Yeah, that sounds like time to bust out the crazy superweapon to me," Shiro said.

"And to focus on direct cockpit shots," Gato added. "Mister Yuy's theory about Devil Gundam's cockpit block, if correct, would certainly apply to the others."

Kincaid sighed. "That's an ugly way to fight."

"This is an ugly situation," Gato retorted.

"You've done the right thing by telling us of the dangers inherent in Turn-A's use, Captain," Johnny said, "But personally, I'd rather have it on the field than standing idle in a hangar. The question is, Captain, are you still willing to pilot it?"

"Well... I guess my position is the same as Garrod's right now. I'd rather not, but if it's necessary, I can do it. Everyone will have to trust me to be careful with it."

"If you couldn't be trusted with the Moonlight Butterfly, you wouldn't have the right to use it," Rondo said. "That much is clear by now."

"I wonder, though... if Turn-A's programming includes hostility toward other AIs, then does that mean its capabilities aren't unique?" Selene asked. "Is it from a world where there's, I don't know, some sort of Turn-B Gundam running around?"

"If there is, we can only hope the Beyonder opts not to bring it here," Johnny said. "And that may well be hoping against hope."

"So is there anything positive about this Dark History stuff?" Shiro asked. "Like, are you gonna tell us about how we can build crazy Nanite Phase Shift Gundam Fighters now?"

Amuro stared at him, taken aback by the suggestion. "I hate to admit it, but I didn't even think of that..."

Shiro grinned, feeling quite pleased with himself. "Really? Well... I dunno, isn't it obvious? Wouldn't it mess up our enemies to start fielding a bunch of stuff that never existed?"

"You're a genius!" Kincaid exclaimed. "That's a great idea!"

"I'm not sure it's a useful one. Mobile Suit development cycles are long. We'd never have a new unit ready in time to fight Devil Gundam," Sven said.

"No, but it'd give us a way to break out of a quagmire," Selene said. "It's worth looking into, at least."

"So it seems to me," Rondo began, "we've been fully briefed on our situation and we have a plan of battle. I think we're done here. I'm going to set a course back to Von Braun. Rest up while you can, because we won't have any time to spare once we get to the moon."

"Is that permission to get hammered?" Kincaid asked.

Rondo's nose wrinkled in momentary distaste. "I suppose. Be circumspect. It would be exceedingly inconvenient if someone ended up choking to death on his own vomit."

-X-X-X-

Al rose from his seat. "I'm going to brief Kira on what he missed. He needs to hear about this Le Creuset person, at least."

"Hey, let me go with you," Shin's voice was just barely above a mumble.

Al arched his visible eyebrow. "If you insist. I'd rather not deal with another argument, though."

"I won't start anything. I've just... got something to say, is all."

"Fair enough. You can help me figure out where they went." The way Shin refused to make any sort of eye contact made Al think that the "something" was probably some sort of embarrassed apology. He was nothing but sympathetic to Shin's plight.

"Man, you know what Kira's like, he probably just went in a straight line until he hit a wall," Garrod said, descending from a higher row of seats. "Anyway, lemme go too. I'm good at patching things up!"

"Are you sure you don't mind going with me?" Al asked.

"Ehhh... no, I guess not. I dunno, blaming things on you isn't very satisfying anymore... I can't dwell on what might've been forever. I guess we're cool for now," Garrod asked.

Al felt an enormous sense of relief. "I suppose we are. Let's get going, then."

-X-X-X-

"Ms. McGriff, Lieutenant Bayang," Rondo said, striding toward the front of the room. "As residents of the Cosmic Era, I feel there's some additional things you should know about our situation. Are you two free for a briefing now?"

"Ma'am," Sven said with a nod, saluting reflexively.

"Another briefing?" Selene asked. She seemed disappointed. "I was hoping I could have a look at Turn-A."

Amuro was not far away, disconnecting Hachi from the forward screen's projection system. He looked more than a little startled. "What, right now?"

"Of course! How am I supposed to focus on anything else, with such an amazing machine on board?" Her eyes shone and her voice was full of enthusiasm.

Her energy reminded Amuro of how worn and tired he felt. "I'd be glad for some help, of course, but... I'd really need a sleep shift first, if you don't mind."

"Oh... that's right, you are a Natural. That's fine. When does your next sleep shift end?"

"Ahh..." Amuro was trying to think of a way to deflect Selene's enthusiasm without being rude.

Rondo frowned. "The Captain's duties stretch him rather thin, Ms. McGriff. I'm sure when he's available, he'll contact you."

"Right! That's absolutely right," Amuro agreed, rather pleased to be bailed out.

"If the commander has time to brief us now, Selene, we should go," Sven said. He looked and sounded uncomfortable.

Selene made no attempt to hide her dissatisfaction. "I suppose we should. I hope I'll hear from you later, Captain."

"That reminds me. Captain, I'll send someone to fetch you as soon as I'm available. I want to have a talk with you before your next sleep shift," Rondo said.

Amuro felt startled all over again. "A talk? I don't-"

"Business, Amuro. I'll explain when I see you. Now, come along, you two."

Amuro stared after Rondo as she led Selene and Sven away. He could not think of when Rondo had referred to him by name before. It awakened a feeling of dread in him, and he could not understand why.

-X-X-X-

"So where do you guys keep the liquor on this ship?" Kincaid asked, as he headed for the door.

Shiro was walking alongside him, grinning. "Oh, same as most ships, I guess. Poke around the mess hall's stores and something usually turns up!"

Kincaid laughed. "I wouldn't know how it works on most ships. Our Captain doesn't permit alcohol on board."

"What?! That's crazy! You're a space pirate, you've gotta have space grog or something," Shiro said.

"The Crossbone Vanguard are pretty disappointing pirates when it comes to stereotypes, I guess," Kincaid shrugged. "But the Captain has a parrot! That counts for something, right?"

"Not as much as space grog would!" Shiro said. "Anyway, I'm not sure what we'll find, exactly-"

"I'm going with you." Shiro and Kincaid both slowed in surprise as Kamille fell into step with them, indifferent to their surprise. "If you two don't mind?"

"Uh... do you really think you should be drinking? I mean, you seem to be... kinda..." Kincaid trailed off, trying to think of a good euphemism for Kamille's unique combination of bad attitude and possible mental disorders.

"Look, there's a lot of people on this ship who probably shouldn't be drinking, but we're all going to do it because we're stuck in the middle of the apocalypse together," Kamille spat. "Why do I have to be the odd man out?!"

"Because nobody else runs around punching people out," Shiro said.

"- look, that's- that situation is complicated! You'd understand if you'd walked a mile in my shoes and seen even half the things I've seen."

"Yeah, but I haven't!" Shiro crossed his arms, and eyed Kamille sternly. "All I know is you're the guy who had a nervous breakdown and decked the Captain, and now you want to be our drinking buddy?"

Kamille was caught off-guard, sputtering for a response. "Well- well- how am I supposed to talk to anybody if you're all out drinking and ditch me?"

Kincaid grinned. "He's got you there, man."

"You start by promising not to deck anybody else, no matter what kind of psychic freakout you're having," Shiro said, in a tone of voice that accepted no argument. His expression softened, though. "From there? Yeah, we can talk over a friendly drink."

Kamille huffed a little, looking away. "If I have your permission, sir."

"Hey, c'mon, relax. Ditch the sarcasm. We go get a few friendly drinks you explain your damage with the Captain to us, huh?" Kincaid asked.

"So you can tell me exactly how crazy I am, future man?" Kamille asked.

"Uh, if you want?" Kincaid responses, laughing uneasily. "More like I've got no idea what the hell is going on with you, and it seems to me like you could use some people in your corner."

"Save it for the mess hall, guys," Shiro said. "Maybe after a couple of shots we'll all be able to stand each other a little better."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

There's a lot of very retro rejected knowledge that comes up in the bit where everyone's theorizing about how the Dark History works. Most of these arguments aren't strictly realistic (or possible), but they felt right as an "explanation" for what is, at heart, an utterly Tomino narrative conceit.

The theories the characters toss out about Turn-A are along the same lines, as is the timeline conceit. I believe at one point there was an "official" timeline sequence published that would disagree with this, but the show itself I felt was always appropriately ambiguous about the issue. My theory follows mainly from the show, and ignores other sources of errata and fanon that have cropped up over the years.

Don't worry, the upgrade cycle and new mecha assignments are coming soon. And after that... well, you'll see.

-X-X-X-

Music for this chapter was Machine Head's The Blackening album. Make of that what you will.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	67. Chapter 67

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: The White Faction steels themselves for the battle to come, and Amuro has a disturbing premonition.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"I just... I just can't do this again. I'm not strong enough, I'm not good enough..."

Kira Yamato sat upon the floor of the corridor where he had finally stopped his mad retreat from the briefing room, face buried in his hands. As Garrod predicted, he had essentially retreated in a straight line, stopping when he could no longer think of where he wanted to go.

Al sighed, crouching next to his distraught friend. "Kira, come on. The stakes are too high for you to be acting like this."

Stellar's face was also tear-stained, though she seemed to have collected herself a bit. "Shin said he was sorry!"

"I did!" Shin added, bewildered by Kira's ongoing breakdown. This was clearly much bigger than his comments during the Beyonder's disturbing visit, but he still felt guilty about it.

"It's not that! It's just... Rau, I can't fight Rau again!" Kira hugged himself, his eyes lost in memories of Jachin Due. "You don't know how hard it was the first time!"

"Well, then maybe you don't do it?" Garrod asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe you just tell us about the guy, and then somebody else goes after him."

"Unacceptable, Garrod Ran!" Domon's voice echoed off the metal walls, his mantle making him seem enormous in the spaceship's cramped interior. Heero was behind him, silent.

"Shishou!" Shin exclaimed.

"... gesundheit?" Garrod asked, thoroughly confused.

Domon pushed past Garrod, oblivious to the stares of the other pilots. Kira squirmed beneath the Gundam Fighter's burning gaze.

"Cease your snivelling, Kira Yamato! Evil is upon us, and that is the time for a man to fight!" Domon clenched his fist powerfully as he spoke.

Kira was, plainly, too stunned to have any sort of response to Domon's bellowing.

Domon took this as a sign to continue. "This is the Beyonder's world! If we do not face our demons here..." Domon's voice softened. "... if we neglect our duties, to keep our hands clean... or refuse a task, because it is too hard... then we will watch good men die for our cowardice!"

Kira slowly lifted his eyes to meet Domon's during the other man's tirade. "... you don't want to do this, either."

Domon looked away. "I do not. But this is neither the time nor place for a man to think about what he alone wants."

"Why don't you want to fight? Devil Gundam is your sworn enemy, isn't it?" Kira asked.

Domon eyed Kira for a moment, then turned away without a word. His footsteps echoed, heavy and metallic, in his wake.

Kira pushed himself back up to his feet. "Wait! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Don't. If he's done talking to you, he's done," Shin said, moving to block Kira's way.

Kira was still a bit unhappy, though he seemed oddly pleased that Shin was speaking to him civilly. "But I don't understand..." Kira said.

"He's connected to Devil Gundam somehow," Heero said. "And doing a bad job of hiding it."

"I guess that would fit," Garrod said. "I haven't known the guy long, but he seems kinda obsessive about it."

"That's what I don't understand! Why would you want to carry a burden like that alone?" Kira asked.

"Really? Kira, come on," Al said. "Think about what you were just doing."

Kira flushed a bit, embarrassed. "Well, I... I guess I thought that was different..."

"Of all the things to bring you back to reality..." Al said. He felt like laughing.

"Shishou is like that," Shin said. He felt a little proud. "I think he could get through to anybody, if he wanted."

"She what?" Garrod asked.

Stellar looked around, happily, and spoke well before Shin could. "Everyone is done fighting now?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, everybody," Kira said.

"Then Stellar and her friends will have fun!" she said. "All of her friends!" She reached out to grab hold of Heero's elbow, as he turned to retreat.

Heero froze, alarmed. "I don't have... fun."

"Heero will have fun or Stellar will be mad at him!"

"Come on, can't you at least try?" Shin asked.

"Just pretend, man," Garrod added, nodding. "You've seen what a smile looks like, right? Do one of those."

Heero glowered at Garrod for a moment, then sighed. "Mission accepted."

-X-X-X-

Amuro settled down into the ornate chair Rondo offered him, and hoped he did not look as uncomfortable as he felt. "No, thank you. I'm fine."

Rondo glanced back at him, tapping her chin. "No, you're not. Here, this a better red than you're likely to see again."

She pulled out a couple of zero-G drinking containers packed with one of her favorite wines from a storage unit behind her sitting room's great black desk. Amuro didn't have the heart to refuse once she proffered one to him, for all that he usually felt like an idiot drinking anything fancy out of a straw.

Rondo eased into her own seat behind her desk, satisfied. She took a long drink, letting the silence settle heavily on the room, and briefly closed her eyes.

"So, exactly what..."

"What did I want to talk to you about?" Rondo finished. "Yes, I'll be getting to it. I just wanted to set a proper mood first."

"Mood? This... this isn't about ship's business, is it."

"No. It's about what those newcomers have been saying," Rondo said, leaning forward. Her eyes narrowed, meaningfully. "About your death."

"Ah..."

"If it was one of them, I might assume history remembered you incorrectly. But the Doctor..." Rondo frowned. "Amuro, do you think it's true?"

"That I die stopping Axis?" Amuro paused, and looked down at the container's inelegant blue plastic exterior. "Possibly... probably. I had a strange feeling about that operation from the beginning." He couldn't quite bring himself to mention the strange dreams.

Rondo drank again. It was a good wine, smooth and dry, and yet she scowled after she swallowed. "It's unacceptable. Completely unacceptable."

"What?"

"What is the point of surviving this Gundam War, only to die right after? It's a waste... a waste of a life and talent that could be put to such better use."

Amuro found the disgust in her voice unsettling, somehow. "I'm flattered, but... I'm a soldier. I've been one for most of my life, at this point. I've always known things could end that way."

"You shouldn't be a soldier. That's a waste, too."

Amuro laughed despite his poor mood. "So what should I be, then?"

"A great inventor, or a master engineer. A man who leads industries, and changes society with his creations... or with his philosophy." Rondo smiled, a far-away look in her eyes that Amuro had never seen before. It captivated him, and left him unprepared for what came next, when she turned to meet his eyes. "You should be my husband."

Amuro had yet to take a drink, but still felt like choking. "- what?"

Rondo was smiling fondly, contemplating a future she had clearly already written. "The Beyonder has promised us a boon in return for victory. When this is over, I will ask him to return you to the Cosmic Era with me. It would be trivial to create a suitable identity for you. You would improve our technologies and help Orb teach the world about Newtypes... and, of course, our children would be magnificent heirs for House Sahaku."

Amuro gripped the soft plastic container tightly, to keep his hands from shaking. "Rondo, this is... this is pretty sudden..."

"I suppose it is. It's not a notion I would seriously entertain, if I thought there was something worthwhile waiting for you beyond the Gundam War... but it's obvious that there isn't."

"I just... Rondo, you're an amazing woman, but we're not exactly in love with each other..."

"So?" Rondo laughed. "Amuro, you must remember, I'm a noblewoman. My love is reserved for my people. In marriage, I seek only a worthy and enriching partner." She grinned. "Though I am sure I could, at the very least, make you fond of me."

"Probably..." The words slipped out of Amuro's mouth before he quite knew what he was doing. The future Rondo offered him was seductively appealing. In a new world, he could live free of the One Year War's crushing legacy, and let Rondo's power shelter him from all care and worry. It was entirely the opposite of what Beltorchika had wanted from him, or the commitment that he feared Chen would one day demand.

"So you'll say yes?" Rondo leaned forward, smiling, eyes terribly bright.

"I..." Amuro paused. He felt somehow heavy, despite the low gravity. The room seemed to fall away, a bright and infinite void swallowing his vision. The sound of beating wings, unseen, echoed in his mind.

He had heard that sound before, in the dreams he did not care to remember. It was the echo of his most painful and sacred memories of the One Year War, and the sound of a destiny from which he could neither run nor escape. Rondo would not save him from it any more than Sayla had.

"Amuro?" Rondo asked. "Are you all right? Is it a premonition?"

"I... I don't think what I tell you is going to matter, Rondo," Amuro was shaken, his voice unsteady. "I don't think I'm ever going to leave the Beyonder's world. I think I'm going to die here."

"What?! That's preposterous! What could kill the pilot of the Turn-A Gundam?!"

"Turn-A's already lost one pilot here," Amuro said. His voice was soft, and his smile sad. "I think... I think that's why seeing me panicked Kamille. He really did see a spectre of death upon me, not just his own memories of Axis. My fate here is already decided, and we're just drawing closer to it."

"No! Don't talk that way, I won't have it!" Rondo shouted. Her fist came down on her desk, the lacquered wood quivering. Amuro started and fell silent.

Rondo visibly struggled to compose herself. "Look... you Newtypes have already seen terrible futures that we've averted. So whatever you see now can surely be changed."

"Maybe," Amuro said. "Rationally, you should be right. But this feeling... it's not a warning of danger. It's something heavier, like doom."

"We're drawing to the end of the Gundam War. Of course you feel doom near."

"No. That's... it's hard to explain, but something like the end of a war, that's different. I know what this is. I've known it for a long time."

Rondo exhaled. The open frustration on her face was a rare sight. Amuro thought, idly, that she was much lovelier this way.

"What if we make a wager of it?" Rondo asked.

He blinked in surprise. "A wager?"

"A wager. If you really are going to die in this world, then it's true that you can give me no meaningful answer," Rondo said. "But what if I prevent your death? If I see you to the end of the Gundam War, then surely I have some rightful claim upon the life I've saved."

Amuro laughed, and his smile came easily. He'd always loved audacity in a woman. Given the right circumstances, and enough time, maybe he would fall properly in love with her. "You know... why not? If you can get me through this alive, I'd be a fool to refuse you."

"Amuro, please. There's no 'if' to it. You're not going to die, because I refuse to permit it. I have far better things in mind for you."

From that moment onward, Amuro felt the resistance within him begin to crumble away. He drank, and spend the next few hours in easier, lighter talk with Rondo. When he left Rondo's quarters, he was conscious of how she had worked to set him at ease. It was a strange feeling, but not an unwelcome one.

-X-X-X-

"History is broken. That's the problem... the problem with everything."

Johnny Ridden and Anavel Gato sat in the particular staff lounge where the adult pilots had agreed to meet, alone and utterly without alcohol. Shiro and Kincaid were late, and in their absence, the two men had begun talking despite the handicap of sobriety.

"Well, of course it is. Look at the mess the Universal Century becomes," Gato replied.

"Not just the Universal Century," Johnny said. "I mean everything, the entire Dark History. I cannot shake the feeling that the failure of the One Year War set mankind on fundamentally the wrong course... and doomed it to repeat its failures forever."

Gato exhaled, thinking over the possibility. "If that is true, Commander Ridden, then it is more vital than ever that you survive the Gundam War and change history."

"Do you believe it's true, Lieutenant?"

"I have no choice but to believe. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate," Gato's eyes narrowed, and his thoughts turned toward Haman Karn's betrayal.

"What's the alternative?"

"That the universe is essentially random, and no particular meaning can be attached to anything I've experienced." The words were leaden as Gato spoke them, hanging ominously in the air.

Johnny paused, choosing his words carefully as he spoke. "Nihilism is a luxury we can ill afford now, Anavel."

"Of course. You are absolutely right." Gato's reply came too quickly, and did not suggest a man who had been truly convinced.

Johnny decided to change the subject. "If I truly am to change things, the effort must be bigger than simply changing Zeon. The others from our era must support us. They can tell me how history went wrong, and how I might prevent it."

"The others? I presume Lieutenant Amada, Captain Ray...?"

"Doctor Bidan, if ever stops being recalcitrant... Mister Nau might even be useful, in his way."

Gato snorted. "Mister Nau... he represents a grim future, indeed."

"Grim?"

"That Gundam! That ridiculous, cartoonish... is that really the future of our war machines? Becoming kitschy mascots?!" Gato exploded with a sudden fit of loathing.

Johnny was plainly startled. "... design aesthetics are sure to change over the years, Anavel."

"That's the aesthetic of a degenerate and damned society!" Gato bellowed. "Dammit, where the hell are the Feddies?! If ever I've needed a drink, it's now!"

"Let me try to call up the mess hall. I think that's where they were going." Johnny tried not to look too eager as he headed for the ship's intercom system. "Mess hall? What's going on down there?"

"Oh! Ohhh man, guys, we totally meant to be there already, I swear..." Shiro's voice was, at points, suspiciously slurred.

"Lieutenant? Did you three start without us?" Johnny asked.

"We didn't mean to! We totally, totally didn't mean to... it's just, man, the Doctor, that guy... he's had it pretty rough, you know..."

"You aren't here because you started drinking with Doctor Bidan?!"

"He was gonna propose! He still has the ring and everything... the Beyonder's such a bastard..." Shiro's voice sounded suspiciously thick.

"So you're not here because you're all weeping over your girlfriends?!" Johnny couldn't help but sound utterly incredulous.

Shiro did not answer this time. From the background, the plaintive cries of "I don't deserve her" and "No, man, you've gotta believe!" filtered through the intercom's speakers.

Johnny cut off the call, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Ugh. Feddies."

"What did we do this time?" The electronic door had just slid open. Amuro stood there, weary but relaxed. More importantly, he had clearly brought something to drink with him.

Gato could not entirely make himself scowl at Amuro's approach. "The rest of your ilk are crying over their girlfriends instead of getting drunk with dignity."

"I can't say I'm surprised. I guess you're lucky I'm not much of a romantic." Amuro went to set down with the other men, and distributed the drink containers he was carrying. "These are a little gift from Rondo. Vodka. Be careful, one drag is more or less equivalent to a shot."

"That's more like it! Now, Captain, I hope you're going to tell me about how much you hate Mr. Nau's Gundam."

"Well... it's pretty gaudy, but that's always been the problem with Gundam type designs..."

"I hate to interrupt, Captain, but I was hoping we could discuss something more substantial than robot aesthetics," Johnny said. "I'm sure you know what my ambition is, if I survive the Gundam War. But if I am truly to repair history, I must know of everything I must avert. Would you be willing to share your knowledge of the 0080s?"

Amuro paused, and drew a shot from the container. He seemed to be thinking the matter over carefully before he responded. "... alright. Listen carefully, both of you. I'm going to tell you about a Federation hardline group called the Titans..."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Next chapter, preparations on the moon begin! I just had a little more groundwork to lay first.

-X-X-X-

I don't have a music recommendation to make this chapter, but there is something new I tried out this time. I finished this chapter using a new writing software called Zen Writer. I prefer managing my music through another program the old-fashioned way, but I find all the customization options do make it easier to get into my zone. Give it a try if you find yourself frustrated with more conventional types of word processing programs.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (Phase Shift Down)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (damaged)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (damaged)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (damaged)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	68. Chapter 68

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: With the Izumo docked at Von Braun, an away team heads to DOME to seek its help while the others prepare for the looming battle on Earth.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

DOME had not changed in the few months since the Izumo had last sent an away team there. The air was still cool and stale, the automated hanger empty and accommodating. This time, the Izumo's away team was using a rented cargo shuttle instead of their own Mobile Suits, and their numbers were greater. Otherwise, little had changed.

Rondo was the first to take her normal suit's helmet off, after the group had emerged from their parked shuttle into the hangar. "Ugh, that's better. It gets so stuffy in these things."

"Wow, this is where the Satellite Cannon comes from?" Garrod was perhaps the only member of the group truly eager to see DOME. "I didn't know my world had anything like this..."

"As I understand it, Mister Ran, your world was once very much like ours," Johnny said. "And a base like this would not be unusual in the Universal Century. To think it's caused us so much grief."

"You really haven't been here before? I thought you were one of the guys who'd been here from the start," Kincaid was at ease, though he seemed unusually distracted.

"The last time we sent a party to DOME, I did not participate. I felt, to my lasting regret, that I had other duties that were more pressing."

"You make it sound like something terrible happened here." Selene was already tapping away at the computer tablet she'd brought along, trying to bring up schematics and maps from the base's still-active wi-fi network.

"It did. A dream died here, and we are all poorer for it." Johnny's voice was heavy with sorrow.

"You speak the truth, Johnny Ridden. Garma Zabi did not deserve the fate that awaited him here." Domon lingered a bit behind the group. The only normal suit they'd been able to find to fit his tall, broad-shouldered frame was rather bulky. His stern, sharp mannerisms looked perfectly ridiculous in it. Selene was already fighting down a giggling fit.

"Garma... Zabi? Huh. That sounds familiar. Like I should know who that is, you know? Was he some kinda One Year War guy?" Kincaid asked.

Johnny answered him with a deep disappointment in his eyes. "I suppose, from your perspective, that's true enough."

"Sorry. I didn't mean..."

"Let's not dwell on the past," Rondo said. "We're here with a mission, let's complete it. Mister Ran, I take it you'll be able to recognize what we're looking for?"

"You know it! Just point me in the right direction and I'll be able to tell a Satellite Cannon from... I dunno, whatever else they keep up here."

"I've brought up the base's area map... judging from that, there's really only a couple of places where Mobile Suits or parts for them are likely to be stored," Selene said.

"Let's talk to DOME first. If things work out, he might be willing to just tell us what's here," Rondo said.

"DOME's in the big white... well, the white dome, right?" Kincaid asked. "It feels like somebody... something? No, somebody. There should be somebody there."

"Correct. Brace yourselves, people," Rondo said, as she began to walk forward. "If this is anything like our last meeting with DOME, you might find it a bit upsetting."

-X-X-X-

Kamille had left the Izumo team, currently holed up at an Anaheim facility, with every intention of offering his services to the nearest hospital or clinic. Lunar communities had difficulty retaining good practitioners even in his time, so he could only imagine the situation being a thousand times worse in the Beyonder's mad patchwork universe. He hadn't expected Von Braun's public transportation systems to be completely shut down, though, and he ended up having to travel toward his destination on foot.

That inevitably took him through Armstrong Park. Once he realized where he was, his pace slowed. He stopped at a bench near the statue that gave the park its name, telling himself it was just to catch his breath. Inevitably, though, he sank down into the clinging darkness of his memories.

Armstrong Park was a special place for him and Fa. They'd gone there the first day after they arrived in Von Braun to start new lives together, as sightseers growing acquainted with their new home. He'd planned to give her the ring at the statue, the ring that now sat useless in his jacket pocket. Kamille missed Fa. He missed her so much that his chest ached at the thought of her, the psychosomatic pain that the ancients had named heartbreak.

He'd always thought she was pretty, but in this moment her unattainable beauty was, to him, the crowning jewel of all creation. She was too good for him, too capable and too loyal. How much had she suffered for his sake? What had she gone through during his missing year, when the world had repaid his blood and pain with a yawning void? The Beyonder said they weren't truly missing from their homes, but Kamille still imagined her looking for him, again. The thought of it made breathing difficult, and his vision blur.

"- hey, are you okay? Do you need a ride, maybe?"

Kamille jerked his head up in surprise. Before him stood Amuro, body framed by the electric car he'd clearly parked at the statue's vistor lot. A pale line on his lip was all that remained of the ill-conceived blow Kamille had greeted him with days ago. Kamille's heart leapt in his chest, and part of him froze in embarrassment. His mouth opened, but there were no words.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Amuro said. He took a few steps back. "I can tell you're busy. I didn't mean to intrude."

Something about the interaction made Kamille feel pathetic, and suddenly he found his voice again. "No, no, you're fine. I could use a ride."

Amuro brightened. "Oh, sure. Where to?"

"Back to- I don't know, back to the ship. Or wherever everyone else is right now."

"I thought you said you didn't want-"

"I changed my mind. I... I can't handle this right now."

Amuro wasn't sure he understood Kamille's distress, but he was still happy for the chance to reconnect with him. "Well, sure. The car's not far from here."

"What are you doing out here, anyway? I thought you were overseeing repairs."

"I am, but everything's delegated for now, and I can't touch Shining Gundam until I know what kind of parts are in Anaheim's stock. So I thought I'd go on a food run for everybody else. I always appreciated it when Christina did that, last time around..."

"Christina?"

"Oh... before your time. She's a teammate we lost..."

Amuro trailed off into a troubled silence. In his current state of mind, Kamille couldn't imagine a kind yet martyred woman without picturing Fa, and he was afraid the thought would lead somewhere mortally embarrassing. Not a word passed between the two until they reached the electric car.

Amuro began to clear an impressive pile of take-out food from the passenger seat, still hot, and almost all of it junk. A box of donuts sat atop a pair of pizza boxes, crowned by a good half-dozen paper bags, each from a different lunar chain. Kamille felt his gorge rise as he glimpsed a MacDaniel's logo. He prayed he didn't catch a whiff of whatever was in the bag; he'd actually vomited from the smell before.

"You're way too old to be eating like this," Kamille said, mostly to distract himself.

Amuro laughed. "I know. It's not for me, it's for the kids. Mostly."

"Kids?"

"Oh, you know... Kira's writing a new multi-OS software interface for the shuttle launchers, Heero's organizing Anaheim's unit data, Al's cataloguing spare parts... it's all computer work, so I figured they'd appreciate some proper student food." An incredible lightness entered Amuro's voice as he spoke. Kamille had heard that tone of voice, long ago, and simply found it annoying. Now, he could see that it was the specific form of pride reserved for adults, as they described the achievements of the young.

Kamille settled into the passenger seat, reflecting upon what an utter asshole he could be. Even after all this time, long after he thought he knew better, it took only a little stress for him to become completely self-absorbed.

Once the car was in motion, Kamille steeled himself. He had to say it now, before the opportunity slipped away and he sank back into depression. "Hey. I'm... I'm sorry about before."

"Oh... oh, you mean this?" One of Amuro's hands idly went up to his lip. He laughed again. "Don't worry about it. I can't blame you, it had to be one hell of a shock-"

"Not just that. I mean... I mean everything."

"Everything?"

"Axis. Quattro. Everything."

"Oh." The anguish Amuro heard in Kamille's voice was humbling.

"When it was happening, I knew... I knew I should probably do something, but..." Words failed him as he remembered those years, when he was still completing his residency.

Fa had stopped turning on the television. Current events were never mentioned in their tiny apartment, but he couldn't help overhearing things at work. As he sat on the train, exhausted after a twelve-hour shift, his mind would begin to fill with half-baked plans. One day he would decide to go to Londenion, set aside his distaste for violence, and enlist. On another, it would seem he should find some way to infiltrate Neo-Zeon and confront Char.

His plans always became dust when Fa opened the door for him and he saw her face, pale, lined with worry. Drien by crushing guilt, he would promise that those days were over, that he wasn't a pilot anymore and the world could go to hell. Every time, her response was the same. She would support him, no matter what decision he made. If he left to fight, she would join him. These sorts of conversations always ended in tears on both sides, and an exhaustion that settled into his bones and made living feel like a burden.

The cycle came to an abrupt end one day, when Kamille was attending a routine appendectomy. One moment, he had been reaching for the instrument the surgeon requested, and then suddenly the world went black. When he awoke from his coma a day later, pale green light from the ring around the Earth flickered through his hospital room's window. Char and Amuro were dead, and there was no longer a decision for him to make. He had felt relieved, and then ashamed.

Amuro's voice intruded, calm and relaxed. "I understand."

Kamille felt himself become irritated. He hated false sentiment, and Amuro couldn't possibly know what he'd been through. "Oh, come on. Don't give me that-"

Amuro's voice rose a little. "No, I understand! Bright told me you left with Fa. If I was so lucky, I would've done exactly what you did. Well, not the doctor thing, but definitely the rest."

"Wait, you... what?" Kamille was stunned.

"Look. A long time ago, when I was your age... well, I mean, your age during Gryps... there was a girl who loved me more than I deserved, and I didn't appreciate it. I didn't appreciate her, I took everything she did for granted. Then one day, when I wasn't looking..." Amuro's voice dissolved into a sigh. "... she became another man's wife, and moved on. I regret it every time I think about it. So... I understand. You were always a little smarter about these things than I was, and I won't fault anyone for making a wise decision."

"Oh." Kamille was utterly abashed. There was nothing false about that.

"You know, we never sat around and talked about how mad we were that you weren't fighting with us, or anything like that. We were just happy you'd found a way out of all this. I'm sorry you had to leave it all behind for this."

"So am I. It's... it's hard to get over it..."

"You're a civilian. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

"If I ever want to see her again, I need to do something."

Amuro didn't argue with him. The drive was over now, the car pulling into a spot near the hangar where the most badly Izumo machines were undergoing repair. "Well... how about helping me carry this stuff in? Then we'll see what you feel like doing from there."

"I'm not touching the MacDaniel's bag. I swear, that stuff makes me puke."

Amuro grinned. "Oh, come on. It's not that bad..."

"You didn't have to eat it for six months!" Kamille's voice went acid with bitterness.

"Well, at least you're sounding a bit more like yourself..." Amuro handed him the larger stack of boxes. Nothing more between the two men was said, for nothing else seemed necessary.

-X-X-X-

The dried blood was gone from DOME's central chamber, long since washed away by the base's automated cleaning systems. Despite that, Johnny followed Rondo's eyes after she entered the central chamber, and felt certain that he knew the exact spot on which Garma Zabi suffered the fatal blow. The somber atmosphere was not lost on the others, though only Domon had an inkling of why the round chamber was more than just an empty room.

"This has to be it," Selene said, largely just to break the silence.

"No question," Kincaid nodded. "We are definitely not alone in here."

"Really? I thought there'd be... I dunno, like, a computer or something? Or a creepy brain in a science jar." Garrod could not quite disguise his entirely teenage disappointment.

"Now that we're here, how do we go about contacting DOME?" Johnny asked.

"That's where Mister Nau comes in. DOME sent itself offline, but his mind is obviously still present here. I'm hoping a psychic nudge of sorts might wake him up."

Kincaid gazed up at the domed room's ceiling. "Well... I am absolutely not sure I can do that."

Johnny twitched. "What?"

"But I'm pretty good at finding things! So I guess I'll try to find DOME. Who knows? Maybe things will work out."

"Be prepared for anything, Mister Nau. DOME's psychic presence last time was... overhwhelming. It may need to borrow your body to communicate with the rest of us."

"Really? Geez, that's no fun, I want to talk to the guy myself..." Kincaid paused, his face settling into a more serious expression. "But... okay. Here goes."

Kincaid shut his eyes as he concentrated. To most of the others, he simply seemed to be a man standing, quiet and still. When Domon looked at him, though, it seemed that Kincaid's aura was growing larger and brighter by the second. It was not a fighter's aura, suffused with willful anger or killing intent, but instead something cool and serene, flecked with gold. Domon had never beheld such a thing before, and he stood transfixed by the sight.

Slowly, Kincaid's eyes opened. His brow furrowed. "Hello?"

The lights in the room seemed to brighten a little. #Hello.# It was like hearing a voice, a voice heavy with age and sadness, yet DOME remained utterly silent.

"- telepathy?!" Rondo exclaimed.

Kincaid slowly, hesitantly began to smile. "Bingo. Like I said, I wanted to talk to the guy, too."

#I hope this form of communication is comfortable for everyone.#

"This is... this is so amazing..." Selene's face glowed with the pleasure of discovery.

"This is acceptable. More than acceptable," Johnny added.

#I am glad that you still live, Lady Rondo. I am pleased to meet the rest of you. Especially you, Garrod. Tifa thought about you so much.#

"She did?!" Garrod's enthusiasm at this lit his face with an incandescent glow.

#She did. Newtypes do not trust easily, in our era.#

Rondo tried to begin the speech she'd prepared for the occasion, though she was shaken by the lack of any physical presence to directly address. "DOME, we are sorry to awaken you, but we need your help. The Beyonder has summoned a terrible new weapon into the Gundam War, one whose destructive power may exceed your own.#

#I have difficulty imaginging such a thing. You must tell me more about it?#

"Read my mind!" Domon said. The words tumbled from his mouth in an impulsive burst. "The Devil Gundam is the spawn of my world, and I know its abominable nature better than anyone. Read my mind, DOME, and then you will surely wish to help us."

#Are you sure about that, Domon Kasshu? You are not a Newtype. Communing with me will be difficult for you.#

"That's an understatement," Kincaid said, his worry obvious. "Domon, I'm not sure I'd want to try that. Full-on psychic contact can be really traumatic, even if your brain is wired for it."

"I am a Gundam Fighter. I am no stranger to risk."

"But this is a stupid risk! You can just talk to DOME about it, can't you?" Kincaid said.

"No!" Domon refused. "Such an effort would be useless. I am not a man of words. A Gundam Fighter speaks truth with his fists alone. Failing that, I will speak with my heart."

#I am honored by your conviction, Domon Kasshu. Let us try it.#

"If there is any sign of harm coming to him, you must break contact," Rondo said. "He may be willing to risk this, but we'd all be better off if he lived to fight another day."

"The tablet can monitor his rough vital signs. If anything goes seriously wrong, then I'll call for DOME to break off contact. Does that work?" Selene asked.

Kincaid crossed his arms. "Maybe. I dunno. I don't like this."

#I wish no harm to any of you. I cannot promise that I will not cause it, despite my intentions.#

"No one is promised a life free of suffering. Enough talking, DOME! Do this, and know the truth!" Domon shouted.

DOME complied. The room dimmed. An otherworldly stillness settled over the room, and remained until Domon broke it. The howl of anguish that rose up from him was the primal scream of the lost and damned, a sound that gave shape to the agony of betrayal.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

One of the great mysteries of the official UC timeline is what Kamille was doing during the Second Neo-Zeon War. This is one theory, designed to suit the purposes of this story. I am sure there will be many more.

-X-X-X-

If you've ever heard the song "Nobody's Perfect" from Kamen Rider W, you probably understand why I listened to it a lot in writing this chapter.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / MS14-B Gelgoog High Mobility Type Johnny Ridden Custom (damaged)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors) (undergoing repairs)

Shin Asuka / MBF-02 Strike Red IWSP (Shin Asuka Custom) (damaged)

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom (undergoing repairs)

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (undergoing repairs)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez8 & RB-79K Ball

Garrod Ran / Gundam X Divider (undergoing repairs)

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom (undergoing repairs)

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios (undergoing repairs)

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	69. Chapter 69

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: DOME makes his decision, Shin has another existential crisis, and Shiro faces his limitations.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

Domon has sorely underestimated the sheer vastness of DOME's mindscape. The experiences of cold, lonely decades and a final war-torn agony filled the mind of a young man who had, previously, only seen the activity called "war" in photographs and movies. The scream of agony that ripped from Domon's lungs fell into an abrupt silence, as DOME swiftly sent him into unconsciousness.

DOME could easily comprehend Domon's entirety, despite the brief nature of the contact. The vastness of DOME's synthetic structure allowed it to remember far more than any organic being could, and Domon had not even two decades of life to share. DOME sorted through treasured moments, processing Domon's view of his strange world in moments. It was a world fascinatingly alien to DOME, a world where human suffering burned in bright colors, on a scale inconceivable.

It was not possible for DOME to achieve a full understanding of Devil Gundam's technological nature through Domon, for Domon did not completely understand it himself. It was the suffering that followed in Devil Gundam's wake that DOME could see through Domon's eyes, the long succession of corruptions and betrayals. It was a slow-growing, throbbing pain that would not end unless Domon comitted an unspeakable deed, one which would tear his heart in two in a burst of agony. DOME understood suffering very well, and in the depths of Domon's pain, DOME found his answer.

In the physical world, all that had transpired was that Domon had screamed, then fallen slowly to the ground. Kincaid was already at the other man's side, fingers at Domon's neck to check for a pulse. "I told him this would happen! Why won't guys like him ever listen..."

The Oldtypes were horrified at the sudden exchange, and the obscene display of Domon's physical strength laid to nothing in an instant. DOME tried to fill the silence with a calming thought. #No harm has come to your friend. He will awaken soon, and remember little of what he saw in me.#

Johnny was trying to keep calm. "You'll forgive me if I find that cold comfort, DOME."

#Of course.#

"So what is your verdict?" Rondo asked. She could not conceal the urgency in her voice.

A thin, electronic chrip trilled, obnoxious in the silence of the great room. Selene quickly went to silence her computer, but instead gasped. Additional data was flooding into her blueprints of the installation at an alarming rate.

"- it's a Mobile Suit!" she exclaimed, appealing to the quizzical glances of the others. "It's two hangars over-"

#You will find it is an operations-ready Gundam X, equipped with a Satellite Cannon and other conventional armaments. It should respond to Garrod's activator. I ask only that you permit Garrod to continue piloting it.#

"YES!" Garrod exclaimed. "I won't let you down, man!"

#Only one who bears the scars of the Satellite Cannon's terror has the right to wield it, even against such a thing as the Devil Gundam.#

"Wait, scars?" Garrod's jubilation gave way to confusion. "I don't..."

"We'll tell him," Johnny said. "You can be sure of that."

Garrod glanced uneasily at Johnny, but said no more. Even he could read the somber mood that had overtaken the party.

#Thank you. Even with the Satellite Cannon, the cost of Devil Gundam's defeat will be great. Do not let the King of Hearts bear his burden alone.#

"Domon?" Rondo asked. "I don't understand."

DOME's response was tinged with a profound sense of loss. #Domon believes his father created the Devil Gundam, and that his brother pilots it. He bears the shame of its creation, and irrationally blames himself for its misdeeds.#

"That's horrible..." Selene said. "What kind of person would create a horrible Gundam like that?"

Kincaid's voice was soft with regret. "Man, no wonder he was willing to do something so crazy..."

"- wait, Domon's brother?! You mean Devil Gundam's got a pilot like him?!" Garrod exclaimed. Suddenly the defeat of Devil Gundam did not seem quite so cut-and-dried.

"An infinitely powerful weapon, possibly piloted by another Gundam Fighter..." Rondo hissed.

"A most convincing argument," Johnny nodded, though part of him felt sick with fear.

#Do not let his soul be lost to oblivion. A noble light sleeps in it.#

"I don't understand-" Rondo began.

"I think I do. He means... like, I dunno, brain scars. Soul scars, I guess," Kincaid sat back a bit, satisfied that Domon was not about to abruptly die. "That's supposed to be able to happen... the hell of your own making, a black fire that consumes you forever."

Selene's nose wrinkled in dissatisfaction. "There has to be a less metaphysical explanation than that."

DOME, however, seemed satisfied by it. #Thank you, Kincaid Nau. I wish you all luck. I will activate the Satellite System for a call from any of your Newtypes.#

"You have our gratitude, DOME," Rondo said. Although everything had in theory gone about as well as she could have hoped, she felt no happiness nor confident.

#You have my sympathy.#

The group lingered until Domon awakened. AS DOME has promised, he remembered only the vaguest impressions of the After War's era's atrocities, though what he said left Garrod pale. He was an imaginative young man, and it was easy to connect Domon's panicked ramblings with DOME's sad message to him.

No further difficulties awaited the group as they secured the Gundam X and loaded it into their cargo shuttle. On the flight back to Von Braun, Garrod spoke quietly with Johnny about much that had transpired before he joined the group, while Domon said nothing to anyone.

-X-X-X-

The massive metal packing crate loomed over Shin, the model number "ZGMF-X42S" and the name "Shin Asuak" emblazoned across the front in raised letters. Shin held a tablet in his hand, finger hesitating over the prompt that would activate the carton's automatic unlocking sequence. He'd already passed retina scan identification. The machine was undoubtedly his, and made to be his; but he still had to find the courage to ask for it.

Amuro stood behind him, on the main catwalk that crossed this particular hangar. Anaheim was trying to better organize their interdimensional flotsam collection, and now a pair of massive hangars paid host to most of the spare Cosmic Era suits they were housing. There was any number of other suits Shin could use, though they would probably survive his reckless piloting not better than Impulse or Strike had.

"You don't have to do this," Amuro said.

That dispelled the last of Shin's hesitation. His finger stabbed the button, and with a pneumatic hiss of vapor, the hangar's robot arms went to work pulling away the unlocked crate's exterior metal plating. "No, there's no other choice. It doesn't matter where it came from. It just needs to be high-spec enough to beat Devil Gundam."

Amuro exhaled. His voice sounded a little distant. "Well... I can certainly understand that."

Shin and Amuro were not alone on the high catwalk. Besides the regular Anaheim personnel, a small group of Shin's friends from the Izumo had come along. Garrod was away at the DOME mission, and Shin found he sorely missed him.

Stellar was still with him, though, and Kira and Allelujah were being supportive enough. Heero was also present, but dead-silent, as he usually was when doing something purely because Stellar would be offended if he didn't. Fortunately, the spectacle of the ZGMF-X42S's unveiling seemed engrossing enough. Most of the Izumo Mobile Suits were undergoing repair, and this would be the first of the completely new additions.

"You know, most people are happy to find out there's a Gundam with their name on it," Al said.

Shin glanced back toward him, left eye to left eye. "Well... let's just say I've been here long enough that I'm... not exactly proud of who I used to be."

"That's a laudable sentiment," Al replied. "But I wouldn't wallow in it."

"I don't think things will be so bad, Shin!" Kira said. "Freedom and Justice came from ZAFT, and they're... well, I guess they're just robots, but I like to think they've become hero robots. I'm sure anything built for you will be a hero robot, too."

Shin's temper was not the raging beast it once was, but sometimes he had a very hard time not snapping at Kira the way he'd snapped at Loran. Part of him wished he'd been nicer to Loran, just so he'd feel a bit more comfortable being a bit of a dick to Kira now. "Uh, I'm not... I mean, I'm not really worried about the hero thing. I'm worried it'll be... y'know, impractical. Like, a propaganda unit with weird specs..."

The sides were off the crate, but the machine's lines weren't quite visible yet. Behind the clearly gas was a wall of dull grey metal, the sign of a powered-down Phase Shift suit. Its specs were downloading to Shin's tablet, which was already prepped with the necessary ZAFT security codes. The download was mirrored to Amuro's Hachi, for maintenance purposes.

As the smoke cleared, Stellar was the first to speak. "Why is Shin's Gundam hunched over?"

"It's not really hunched, Stellar," Kira said. "I think it's just the way the backpack housing is built. Look at those wing binders! It must have a new propulsion system..."

Amuro was already reading through the machine's technical specs. "Right on the money, Kira. It looks like it's called... 'Voiture Lumiere'?"

"Radiant Carriage," Heero translated.

Amuro squinted at Hachi as he continued. "It seems to have something to do with Mirage Colloid particles..."

"Its name is Destiny. It has an onboard nuclear reactor, so no more battery problems..." Shin used the tablet to flick the machine's Phase Shift colors on, then off again. He frowned. "... and it's an evil hunchback."

"It's not a hunchback! It's just the backpack housing..."

"Kira... Kira, look at this." Shin thrust the tablet at the other young man, screen activated. It displayed an image of what Destiny would look like once powered-up. "It's hunched over! It's weeping tears of blood! This is not something you build for a good guy."

Kira had no response, his attempt at a friendly smile becoming crestfallen. He hated to admit it, but Destiny was clearly not meant to be any sort of partner to Freedom to Justice. If anything, it had to be meant as an enemy.

Amuro nodded. "A monster that strikes fear into the enemy."

"Every Gundam is a monster to its opponents," Heero said.

"Besides, it's not like the thing has a personality. Gundams are what their Meisters make of them," Allelujah said. "People will judge Destiny by what you do in it, not by its appearance."

Stellar clapped her hands together. "Destiny will be a friendly hunchback!"

He had really wanted to stay stubbornly depressed about what Destiny said about ZAFT's plans for him, but Stellar's exclamation cracked him up too badly. Even after he stopped laughing, he couldn't quite stop smiling. He was starting to wonder if Stellar did stuff like that on purpose. There was certainly something impish in her grin.

"Shin, look over the integrated weapons specs. There's something interesting there," Amuro said.

"Like what? It looks like usual stuff to me..."

"The... uh, 'Palma Fiocina' system. I haven't seen it before."

"Oh. Oh, right. I didn't..." Shin paused, as the tablet began giving him a more detailed set of specs on the Palma Fiocina. His eye widened. "- wait, palm beam cannons?! Does that mean-"

"Extreme short-range high-intensity beam discharge, yes." Amuro managed not to smile.

"- that means Destiny can do the Shining Finger!" Kira exclaimed.

"That's... that's crazy. Impossible!" Shin was trying not to let himself get too happy about his ugly machine's one remarkable feature. "Why would ZAFT build something like that? I mean- why would the machine even use it?! It's got sabers and a launcher..."

"I think this is what people used to call 'kismet,'" Al said. He smiled, just a bit. "Or 'karma,' perhaps."

"Or destiny," Heero added, voice so flat as to be utterly dry. He leaned over the rail, so nobody could see that he was having a hard time maintaining an entirely neutral expression.

Stellar seemed to have already warmed up to the silent, slate grey giant that stood on the other side of the hangar. "Destiny will be good, even if he doesn't look that way."

Shin could think of nothing to say. He was absorbed by pouring over Destiny's specs, to see if there were any other pleasant surprises, and trying to remember how Domon's Shining Finger speech went.

-X-X-X-

"Lieutenant Amada... are you a coordinator?"

"Uh... we don't really have those..."

"Oh. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry..." Sven blinked for a moment, eyes lowered. No matter how many times he read the printout before him, he couldn't quite believe it. Shiro's aptitude scores in the simulation were beyond anything he'd expect from an unmodified Natural. "Are you that thing you have instead?"

"Um... thing? What thing?" Shiro asked.

"The thing that's not coordinators?"

"Oh- wait, Newtypes?" Shiro laughed.

Sven nodded. "Right. One of those?"

"No, no. I'm not psychic at all, trust me..."

"You certainly aren't." Gato entered the room, boots clanging on the floor. A sheaf of papers were in his hands, and he seemed deeply dissatisfied by them. "The rest of your aptitude scores are in."

"The ones where we used those crazy future cockpits?" Shiro asked.

"Future?" Sven asked.

"Correct, the future. The score sheet you hold, Lieutenant Bayang, was supposed to be our baseline. It used a standard One Year War Federation cockpit layout, of the sort I imagine Lieutenant Amada already finds very familiar. I am holding the results of our tests that used more advanced control systems."

Sven's brows knit. "Wow... so these are the numbers from a primitive machine?"

"Yes.

"Lieutenant Amada's numbers in more advanced machines must be phenomenal..."

Gato's expression grew more dissatisfied. "They are. After a fashion."

He laid the sheaf of papers down before Sven, who began to flip through them with interest. His flipping slowed as he tried to digest the results printed there. The results were abysmal, less than half of the near-perfect score Shiro had pulled off in the old-fashioned cockpit arrangement.

"I don't... I don't understand," was all Sven could manage.

"I just can't get used to those crazy future cockpits. I guess all my piloting comes from the gut," Shiro said. His smile had grown extremely nervous, probably owing to Gato's slowly blackening expression.

"But... you pulled a zero score at one point! That means you couldn't even-"

"Oh, that one! Yeah, that one was nuts, my sim time ran out before I could even figure out how to turn it on!" Shiro said. "I don't get how we're supposed to have all these stupid wars for the next billion years if Mobile Suits get so complicated that an average guy like me can't even start one up!"

"Because the majority of the human race appears to be vastly more adaptable than you, Lieutenant Amada." Gato's voice was hard and cold.

Shiro shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well... it's not a big deal, right? You can just seal up my Ez-8 so it's spaceworthy and I can use that, right?"

Gato slammed his hands down on the table where Sven and Shiro sat, causing Shiro to jolt in his seat. "Lieutenant Amada! Be honest with me. Is this some kind of bull-headed stunt? Some sentimental effort to force us to let you keep piloting the rickety deathtrap the Beyonder sent here with you?"

"Hey! The Ez-8 is not rickety!" Shiro indignantly pounded his own fists on the table, though not half so forcefully. "It's made out of real Gundam parts!"

"And compared to everything we are about to fight, it is a hobbling antique!" Gato shouted.

"Oh, come on! You guys let Commander Ridden use One Year War suits!"

"A mistake that the Commander is going to rectify on this deployment, Lieutenant Amada. You should do the same! You, above all others here, do not have the right to throw your life away."

Shiro stared at Gato, confusion in his eyes. "Uh... w-what? I don't see what you're getting at, man."

"If you survive the war, then you will be one of those with the power to change history-"

"- wait, you mean Johnny's crazy plan? I'm still not really sure about that. I mean, what could a guy like me even do?"

"More than someone like me!" Gato shouted. "Don't you understand?! Even by my era, it's already too late to change anything about history's miserable course!"

There was an imploring tone in Gato's voice that Shiro would never have expected from him. It made Shiro very disappointed in himself, and he had a hard time meeting Gato's eyes. "Well... I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. I'm not doing this on purpose! I'm just... I'm just not anything special, you know? I can't pilot something I can't understand, and... there's a lot of things I don't understand."

Sven nodded, Shiro's miserable simulator scores spread out before him. "That would appear to be the case."

Gato tried to dig his heels in, stubbornly. "Lieutenant Amada, you survived assaulting Kyrios in a Ball, of all things..."

"Because I know how a Ball works! I don't know what to do in those big window cockpits with the crazy chairs and the floating control panels, okay? I wasn't trained for that!"

Gato pounded a fist on the table in frustration, and could not even attempt to conceal his disappointment. "Very well, then, Lieutenant Amada. If there is nothing else to be done, then I'll give the order to begin sealing and arming the Ez-8. I hope you plan to be extraordinarily careful while piloting it."

"I will," Shiro said. He clasped his hands, thumbs fidgeting nervously. "I'm... really, I'm sorry about this."

"Every man has a limit, I suppose. Nothing is achieved by apologizing for that," Gato said. "But I hope you will not expect me to apologize for overestimating you, Lieutenant Amada. This evaluation is concluded, and you are dismissed."

Gato saluted the other two men, who rose to attention and returned the gesture. After that, Gato departed, leaving Shiro and Sven alone. Shiro slumped, his distress written clearly across his face.

Sven felt sorry for him. He'd seen that face on a thousand other recruits. "Your baseline scores are still very good," he said.

"Thanks, I guess," Shiro said. "But I dunno. Right now I feel like the guy who's an expert at driving the short bus."

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

Music recommendation for this chapter is the Ultimate Yes collection, which includes a lot of fine prog rock. (Yeah, I'm watching JoJo's like everyone else, and Roundabout keeps getting stuck in my head.)

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / ?

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / ZGMF-X42S Destiny

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / Shining Gundam (undergoing repairs)

Shiro Amada / Gundam Ez-8 Kai

Garrod Ran / GX-9900 Gundam X

Stellar Loussier / Gaia

Kira Yamato / Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / Kyrios (undergoing repairs)

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy / ?

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

Dogos Gear

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	70. Chapter 70

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Johnny selects a new machine, Al must make a big decision, and Heero almost gets his way.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

"How about this one?" Johnny Ridden paused on the catwalk, just before a mono-eyed machine not a Zaku, though it seemed comfortingly reminiscent of one. Even the green drab put Johnny in mind of home, for all that it was gingerbreaded with golden details.

"That one? That's... huh, that's familiar, but..." Kincaid flicked through screens on his tablet, until he found the data page associated with the unknown Mobile Suit's hangar number. "Oh! AMS-129, the Geara Zulu. Wow, a Sleeves machine! These are super-rare! I never thought I'd see one in person."

Johnny glanced back at him. It was the first sign of excitement Kincaid had shown during their long perusal of Anaheim's hangar for mass-produced Mobile Suits that were, as far as anyone could tell, of Universal Century vintage. "Sleeves?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah. Look at the arm markings. This is a 'Royal Guards' machine, so it's really blinged out, but all the third wave Neo-Zeon machines had 'em. The Feddies back then called the movement 'the Sleeves' based on that." Kincaid leaned over the catwalk's railing and pointed down, at the parts of the machine that lay far beneath them.

"A third wave of Neo-Zeon, Mister Nau?" Johnny asked. "That would postdate Captain Ray's war, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah. Although... I dunno, not many people like to call what went down in UC 0096 a war. It wasn't all that big, even compared to the Second Neo-Zeo War. They called it the 'Laplace Conflict' in school."

Johnny folded his arms behind his back, gazing up at the Zulu's mono-eye contemplatively. "So these 'Sleeves' of yours weren't real Zeon remnants?"

"Oh, no, these guys were totally Zeon. They were mostly old guys left over from the One Year War and their kids and grandkids. There weren't many of 'em, but they were true believers. I think the textbook called them the 'Last Gasp of Zeon'."

"Zeon's philosophy has always embraced the ideal of pride in one's appearance. But to decorate to this level... it seems rather baroque."

"Well..." Kincaid paused, trying to remember school lessons that had laid dormant in his brain for over a decade. "... appearance was a big part of their gimmick. If I remember right, the Sleeves were the Zeon leftovers that remained after Char Aznable disappeared, during the Axis Shock. Their leader was a guy who called himself Full Frontal..."

"Who called himself what?" Johnny looked at Kincaid in open disbelief.

"You know, like 'full frontal assault'? I thought the goof... er, the flamboyant names were a big Zeon thing."

"'Full Frontal' goes far beyond flamboyant," Johnny said. "How did a man calling himself that come to command anything, let alone Zeon's remnants?"

"Well, people thought he was Char. He wore the mask and everything... you know, people still don't know who he really was, even in my time. Some people think he was the real deal, but there's a lot of people who say he was an impostor. The theory I like is the 'clone theory', 'cause there's evidence Zeon had a viable human cloning operation that stretched back to-"

"- that's enough, Mister Nau." Johnny's voice was sharp with agitation, and it was clear that his disapproval had escalated into disgust.

Kincaid fell silent, wondering if he should apologize for saying too much again. He had thought Johnny might be happy to know just how long Zeon had lasted, but something about the Sleeves had clearly just pissed him off. An awkward silence settled between the two men. Kincaid tried to bear it, since Johnny was obviously thinking.

"I believe I am certified to use this machine's cockpit type?" Johnny asked.

"Linear seat? Yeah, your simulator scores are solid. You should still probably do some live tests and training exercises before taking it down to Earth, though..."

"I believe this machine will be sufficient to my needs," Johnny said. "I want it loaded to heaviest capacity for operations in gravity, and I will personally examine its optional armaments to see if any are appropriate to our mission."

"No problem-"

"... and I want it repainted in my ace colors."

"Repainted?!" Kincaid sounded pained at the mere thought. "But the detailing..."

"The detailing is hideous and excessive. Your 'Sleeves' were not people who used Mobile Suits, they were people who thought having Mobile Suits made them strong," Johnny said.

"Come on! Is what a Mobile Suit looks like really such a big deal?"

"Says the man piloting a robot pirate."

Kincaid flushed a little. "Look, that's all my Captain's orders..."

"Look, Mister Nau..." Johnny visibly struggled to think of exactly how to explain his tremendous distaste. "Tell me exactly what these 'Sleeves' of yours accomplished."

Kincaid stammered. "Well, I mean... it's a matter of perspective. The Laplace Conflict was pretty complicated..."

Johnny nodded. "Exactly. They accomplished nothing."

"Wait, no, I didn't say that..."

"Your history has entirely forgotten them, save for their vanity. Men who fight to satisfy their pride alone are not fit to be called Zeon." Johnny's voice rose as he spoke. "We fought the One Year War to change the world. And Mister Nau, I intend to use this Mobile Suit to change this world."

"... wow," Kincaid said. "Are you saying that you think the Sleeves were losers?"

"It seems clear to me that, in the eyes of history... well, at the very least, the Sleeves were not victors. I will not have their markings on my machine. There is potential in this Mobile Suit... but it will be realized in true Zeon colors, not this decadence."

"Well... well, okay," Kincaid began typing the orders into his tablet. "You're going to make all the MS buffs on Anaheim's staff cry, but it'll get done."

"That is all that matters, Mister Nau. Your 'MS buffs' would do well to remember that."

-X-X-X-

In another one of Anaheim's great lunar hangars, Allelujah Haptism strode across the metal floor, magnetic boots clicking. Kyrios was before him, restored and reloaded, with an access panel on its foot open. A riot of cables ran from it to a laptop, atop a cheap, fragile-looking desk. Kira Yamato had clearly been at his makeshift workstation for several hours.

That much, Al expected. He slowed as he saw the man in the overalls who stood behind Kira. It was not Amuro's familiar silhouette at all. Instead, it was unmistakably Doctor Bidan, who stood taller and slimmer, expression quietly supercilious. Al couldn't even begin to imagine what the doctor was doing in the hangar, and his pace subconsciously slowed.

The doctor glanced up at him, pre-emptive annoyance in his eyes. "Yeah, it's me. Get over here, we've been waiting for you."

"Doctor?" Al asked. "I don't..."

Kira stopped typing before he straightened up in his chair. "Oh, Amuro's wrapped up finishing things with Shining Gundam, so Kamille's overseeing some stuff for him."

"You mean I'm picking up the slack while Amuro wastes time catering to a violent sociopath's paranoid delusions." Kamille's tone was, as usual, casually scathing.

"Well... that's fine, but..." Al wasn't sure how to voice his objection. It seemed absurd to have the prickly doctor overseeing anything where his presence wasn't strictly necessary.

Kamille seemed to have imagined Al's train of thought. "I knew a thing or two about engineering once. Can we talk about your Gundam's stupid computer systems now?"

Kira frowned at him. He seemed not to take any of the Doctor's caustic remarks seriously at all. "It's a bit unusual, but I wouldn't exactly say it's stupid..."

Kamille derisively stabbed at his tablet's surface. "Come on, it's a Mobile Suit built around a dumb terminal. The only way this thing could be dumber is if it had knee-mounted beam sabers."

"Wait, dumb terminal?" Al asked. "Is this about Veda?"

"Oh, is that what it's called?" Kira immediately brightened. "I couldn't tell... I mean, I could tell Kyrios was trying to talk to a remote computer of some kind, I just couldn't tell what..."

He moved quickly to peer at what was on the laptop screen. "... wait, is Veda here? In this world?" Allelujah's voice rose in alarm.

Kamille took a few steps back, so Al could get a good solid glance of what Kira had been up to for the past day. "Nope. The Beyonder's just spoofing it."

"Spoofing it?! With what?" Al leaned over Kira's shoulder, so he could start reading what was going on in Kira's terminal window.

"That's what I think I've figured out... I think it's similar to the automation programs in the Izumo and Granshirio," Kira's fingers began to fly across the keyboard again. Allelujah could just barely keep up with the flood of text as it surged down the terminal window. "The Beyonder's created a massive quantum computer that your Gundam's OS can't distinguish from Veda."

"And, anybody smart enough could do that, which is why using a Mobile Suit as a dumb terminal is pretty stupid," Kamille added.

Al flicked a glance back at him, already growing irritated. "That's not likely. No faction on Earth has the resources necessary to duplicate Veda."

Kamille rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and they say nothing can sink the Titanic."

Kira quickly spoke up, to break up the brewing argument. "- anyway, whenever your computer wants to do something, it looks like it contacts the substitute, and it looks like the substitute is rigged to always give it permission."

"Right, because the point of the experiment to give us enough rope to hang ourselves with," Al nodded. "So why exactly did I need to know this? Dealing with Veda is... well, Celestial Being has other specialists that handle that."

"Well, it's this," Kira pointed to a particular word on the screen. "There's something called a 'Trans-Am System' loaded in Kyrios. Right now it's deactivated, and it looks like it won't activate until it gets Veda's permission. I don't know exactly what Veda's activation condition would be, but since the Beyonder's substitute is a quantum computer, it's not really that difficult for me to mess with..."

"So you're saying you could activate it?" Al asked.

"Well, yeah. If you want. I just don't know if that's a good idea or not? It looks like Trans-Am just raises some tolerance settings on machine's power systems. The higher output would probably make Kyrios a lot faster, but I don't know how much harder it'd be to control..."

"Or if your bosses shut off the Trans-Am setting because it makes Gundams explode," Kamille added.

Al crossed his arms and began to study the floor plating, rather unhappily. "As I said, I'm not one of Celestial Being's specialists on the matter."

"Yeah, that's a 'no,' as far as I'm concerned," Kamille said.

"Well... not necessarily. I dunno, I'm not convinced this system is dangerous," Kira said. "See, I think the setting might be global? So it's shut off in the Veda server by default, because once it goes live then it activates in every machine that talks to Veda."

"So if we shut it on for Kyrios, we shut it on for everything else from Al's timeline?" Kamille asked. "I'm still not seeing how this is a good idea."

"Well... I don't know, is that a lot of machines, Al?" Kira asked.

"... hmm. I think I see the issue now. No, I don't think it's a lot of machines. I think it would only apply to Celestial Being's Gundams. There's only a handful of us Gundam Meisters, and anyone loyal to Celestial Being would side against Devil Gundam."

"So if we turn it on and any of your buddies show up, they get to share the power-up?" Kamille asked.

"Oh! Oh, that would explain everything, wouldn't it?" Kira grinned. "So... if that's a 'yes', Al, I'll get to it. It won't take that long."

Al frowned. Making these sorts of decisions off the battlefield wasn't really part of his marching orders as a Gundam Meister. Kira and Kamille didn't realize it, but they were essentially asking him to engage in amateur tactical forecasting. Al was far from comfortable with the idea. Strictly speaking, he should probably refuse to permit any usurpation of Veda's authority over Kyrios.

And yet... destroying something like Devil Gundam was absolutely consistent with Celestial Being's mission. The Gundams of his world were weapons designed to break weapons. What would be the point of giving up resources that could be used to complete that mission more efficiently? There simply couldn't be one, at least not in the Beyonder's composite Earth.

"That's a yes," Al finally said. "Whatever it is, we'll probably need it. Can I help?"

"Oh... I appreciate it, but not really. Computer stuff is, you know, pretty solitary..." Kira had already switched over to another terminal window, and his fingers begun typing with all the speed the hardware could withstand.

"Feel free to babysit him if you want. Now that you've made the call, I'm done here," Kamille said. He finished typing something on his tablet's software keyboard, then tucked the machine under one arm. "Time's running out and we've got a lot of projects coming down to the wire."

Al nodded. If nothing else, remaining where Kamille wasn't seemed like a fine idea.

-X-X-X-

"What do you mean, you're leaving?!" Rondo rose from her seat, a cold rage beginning to twist her expression.

Heero was unmoved. He looked her in the eye, voice unflinching and even. "The MS here are insufficient. I must leave."

Gato said nothing. The tightness of his jaw and severe set of his brows made it clear that, on this matter, he sided with Rondo.

"Insufficient! Hangars full of Mobile Suits from all over the universe, and not even one is good enough for you?!" Rondo's mockery would've withered a pilot made of weaker stuff. "That's absurd! Lieutenant, your tablet."

Gato quietly handed it over to her. The silence was heavy and overbearing as Rondo sifted through the catalog of MS Heero had recognized. "Am I truly to believe that all of these machines are impotent trash?! What's wrong with this one? Variable geometry is perfect for operations in atmosphere."

She thrust the tablet toward Heero's face. He glanced at it, politely, then back up at her. "The Taurus is insufficient."

"Then what on Earth would be sufficient for you, Heero Yuy?"

"Zero."

"- Zero?"

"A Mobile Suit from Mister Yuy's era," Gato spoke up. He couldn't imagine Heero offering a proper explanation to her. "It is a high-spec machine, comparable to the Epyon."

"That is inaccurate," Heero said. "Zero is superior to Epyon."

Gato hadn't heard that stated in such blunt terms, and the thought was a little difficult for him to imagine. Some sort of super-machine like the Turn-A?

Rondo's thoughts were clearly along the same lines, and the thought of another super-machine in the Izumo's ranks clearly intrigued her. The anger left her face, her shoulders relaxing. "Superior? And you have reason to believe it is here?"

"I do not," Heero said. "I have a theory."

"A theory?! You want to abandon us to Devil Gundam because of your theory?!"

"I do not think I will abandon you. If I make it clear to the Beyonder that I will not participate in the war game until I have Zero, then I believe the Beyonder will provide it," Heero said. "I believe this is principle under which the Beyonder provided Devil Gundam to Haman Karn."

Rondo lowered herself back into her chair, clearly intrigued by Heero's proposition. "... and if she simply stopped participating, the results of the Beyonder's little test would be invalid. And the same would be true if you simply stopped..."

"I cannot contact the Beyonder psychically, as Haman Karn did. But if the Beyonder is truly omniscient, then I simply need to make what I want obvious in other ways."

"You're asking the rest of us to shoulder a significant amount of risk in the name of testing your theory, Mister Yuy," Gato said. Something about the idea of using Haman's tactics rankled in him. Lately he'd found his thoughts going to dark places when he contemplated the difference between the woman he'd met here, and the Haman Karn the Delaz Fleet had quietly worshiped in his era.

"The rewards justify the risk. Zero could defeat the Devil Gundam with a single shot," Heero said.

"So it possesses a weapon equal to the Satellite Cannon?" Rondo asked.

"Yes." There was no hesitation in Heero's voice.

Rondo sat back in her chair, gazing up at the ceiling. It was obvious she was calculating the cost of letting Heero have his way, and weighing that against the potentially enormous payoff. "I can't believe it, Mister Yuy, but I think you've actually convinced me. You're not like the other boys aboard this ship at all. "

"No, I am not," Heero agreed.

"I suppose we should let the others know you're going..."

"No." Heero's voice rose a little.

"You expect me to let you sneak out?" Rondo said.

"If I may, Lady Rondo," Gato said. "I think Mister Yuy's request is reasonable. The others will take it badly, and dealing with emotional outbursts would only waste time. The sooner Mister Yuy can begin searching for his 'Zero,' the sooner he can redeploy. If the Beyonder decides to humor him, anyway."

Heero nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Lieutenant."

Rondo grinned, a sly smile that spread mischief into her eyes. "Why, there's some teenage boy in there after all. You don't want to have to say goodbye to your little friends, do you?"

The flat line of Heero's mouth turned ever-so-slightly downward, but he did not voice disagreement.

"I could conduct Mister Yuy out in secret, Lady Rondo. He could leave tonight, in fact. We're so close to departure, the others won't have time to dwell on it once they notice he's gone."

"Are you sure you could make it out without being noticed, Lieutenant?" Rondo asked.

Gato nodded, his eyes growing steely. "Positive, Lady Rondo. I have considerable experience with covert operations."

She simply nodded. "Then I leave it in your capable hands. Notify me when you've returned. Discreetly, of course. You are dismissed."

Gato saluted sharply to her, by way of thanks. Heero did the same, his gesture not less crisp and precise, if perhaps mechanical. With that, both men withdraw swiftly from the room, and into the snarl of hallways that constituted Anaheim's office facilities.

"Thank you." Heero voice was soft, and there was a certain awkwardness in it.

"Do not thank a man for doing his job," Gato replied. "But if you wish to show your gratitude, you could do me a favor before you leave."

Gato glanced at Heero, to see if the young man was receptive to the idea. Heero simply nodded at him to continue.

"I recall you using a powerful self-destruct mechanism to destroy the Epyon. Could you construct such a mechanism, if necessary?"

"Yes. The system's easy to jury-rig."

"Could you fit such a system into my Marasai, before you depart?"

Heero slowed, almost to a stop. He seemed to have difficulty figuring out exactly what to say. Gato held up one hand, driving Heero back into familiar silence.

"I understand the severity of our situation as well as you do, Mister Yuy. Defeating the Devil Gundam is a do-or-die operation. I cannot afford to hold back or hesitate any more, and a true fighting man of Zeon is prepared to lay down his life for his cause," Gato said. "If you will not assist me, I will jury-rig a system myself. I will understand if you wish to keep your hands clean. But thus far, you have conducted yourself as a man above such empty nicety."

The two had stopped walking, as they had reached a stretch of hallway where no windows or doors were nearby. Heero's brows furrowed, and his gaze shifted to one side. Speaking seemed to pain him. "I'll do it. Swear you won't throw your life away."

"I have walked the razor's edge this long, Heero Yuy. I do not intend to fall now."

Heero nodded, and resumed walking down the hallway. His stride was much faster now, as if he was eager to have this night behind him.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

As of this writing, Unicorn Gundam has only five episodes complete and I'm basically just guessing on what its impact later in the timeline must be. This is why I usually don't write about incomplete projects. In this case, though, the Geara Zulu was really too perfect for Johnny to upgrade into for me to ignore it.

I'm not sure if the way the Celestial Being Gundams work with regard to Veda in 00 technically fits the definition of a dumb terminal, but it seemed close enough to be worth exploring from that perspective. And, of course, laying some groundwork for things to come...

-X-X-X-

Lots of Two-Mix for this chapter. I find it's useful for crawling into Heero's mindset, as illogical as that might seem.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Royal Guards, Johnny Ridden Custom)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / ZGMF-X42S Destiny

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / MBF-P01 Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / SYSTEM (Turn-A)-99 Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / GF13-017NJ Shining Gundam

Shiro Amada / RX-79(G) Gundam Ez-8 Kai

Garrod Ran / GX-9900 Gundam X

Stellar Loussier / ZGMF-X88S Gaia

Kira Yamato / ZGMF-X10A Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / GN-003 Kyrios (undergoing repairs)

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy / ?

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

Dogos Gear

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


	71. Chapter 71

Mobile Battalion Gundam Wars

Chapter Synopsis: Operation "Sakura Zensen" is outlined, and the Izumo crew prepares itself to take the field once more. Shin and Stellar argue, and both realize Stellar's limits.

The multimedia Gundam franchise is an original creation of Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuhiro Imagawa, and many other creators. It is the intellectual property of Sunrise and Bandai, who reserve all rights to these original characters. This story is fan-created and is not authorized or endorsed by Sunrise, Bandai, or their subsidiaries. Sunrise and Bandai retain all rights to the characters and machines that appear within this story.

The Beyonder was created by Jim Shooter and is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics. His appearance in this fan-created story is not authorized or endorsed by Marvel Comics. This being said, the Beyonder has been adapted somewhat from his original appearances in Secret Wars in order to make him feel like a more integral part of the Gundam universe. These adaptations are non-canonical and may be wholly attributed to this fan-work's author.

Special thanks to friends, family, lovers, and everyone else who helped make this story possible.

Brief annotations that may be of interest to readers and die-hard Gundam fans follow this chapter of the story.

-X-X-X-

The preparations at Anaheim were finished. The Mobile Suits were resupplied and finely tuned, currently being loaded into the great HLVs that would carry them down to Earth. The HLVs were also being loaded with the shuttle boosters that, if things went poorly, the survivors would need to retreat back into space. The Izumo would tow the HLVs to just above their intended landing site, where they would act as dropships to carry their passengers down to the Brussels military installation that was their destination. A skeleton crew from Anaheim was being taken aboard the Izumo, so the ship would not be left abandoned during the operation against Devil Gundam.

Most of this work was being handled by Anaheim's laborers, leaving the Izumo's allied pilots with little to do besides prepare themselves for the battle that, hopefully, would decide the Gundam War in their favor. Right now, all hands were supposed to meet for a final combat briefing in one of Anaheim's spacious lecture rooms. The Izumo's coterie of younger pilots was lagging somewhat behind schedule, hotly debating how to deliver the crushing news that had fallen into their collective laps.

"Look, just give them the note and let them figure out what to do about it," Shin said. "Heero's long gone by now. It's not like we've got MPs to send after him."

"There's gotta be something!" Garrod all but exploded in rage. "Heero does not deserve to get away with this crap!"

"Heero's note said he was going to come back..." Kira said. "Maybe it's a secret mission?"

"Or maybe Heero's a liar!" Garrod snapped. "Come on, Kira, I thought you were going to start listening to me!"

"Heero doesn't have any reason to lie to us," Al said. "Heero's may not be a kind or warm person, but he believes in this mission. If he left, then it was because he thought it was the best course of action."

"He ditched us right before the final boss fight!" Garrod's anger was stubborn, but slowly fading into a tantrum, as he realized no one else was going to side with him. "It's at least gotta go on record that this was a complete dick move, you know?"

"You're not wrong," Shin said. "You're not wrong at all, Garrod, but what's the point? There's nothing we can do that matters."

"We can call him a dick!" Garrod fumed. "We can put it down in our official records, to be passed down through the eternity of the Dark History, that Heero Yuy is a ninety-kilo bag of dicks who turns his back on people!"

"What's a ninety-kilo bag of dicks?" Stellar's tiny voice filled the corridor.

"It's, uh..." Kira stammered.

Al shot a silent, one-eyed glare of disapproval at Garrod, who had paled in mortification.

"It's what Garrod says when it's time for him to stop talking." Shin's voice strained with the effort of keeping his temper in check.

"Oh." Stellar seemed to have no difficulty believing this.

-X-X-X-

Heero Yuy's final note to the Izumo faction's pilots was written with pencil on notebook paper in a neat, tight hand. All it said was, "I must go. I will return."

Rondo arched an eyebrow at the terse missive, but did not seem surprised. Her expression was otherwise cold and neutral, her imperious stance unchanged. Most of the other pilots weren't taking the news even half so well.

"I knew he wasn't happy with the Mobile Suits we found for him, but I didn't think he'd do something like this..." Amuro was clearly shocked.

"Stone-faced or not, a kid's a kid," Kincaid said with a shrug.

"I have a great difficulty imagining Mister Yuy acting like a 'kid,'" Johnny frowned. "No, I think he knows something we don't."

"Then maybe he should've told us instead of just disappearing?" Selene did not attempt to disguise her petulance. Sven was silent next to her, obviously uncomfortable.

"I do not understand," Domon bowed his head, brows furrowed. "This is the act of a coward, but the man I fought in Epyon showed no sign of such weakness."

"Gentlemen. Ladies," Gato spoke up. "We can speculate about Mister Yuy's motivations for an eternity, but ultimately, we do not know anything."

"The Lieutenant's right," Rondo said. "If Heero is as good as his word and returns, he will face the consequences of his actions. If he is not... then he was never going to be of any use to us."

"OH, COME ON!" Garrod exploded. "There's gotta be SOMETHING-"

"The matter is closed, Mister Ran!" Rondo snapped. "We have no more time to spare, as you well know."

Garrod was clearly not happy, but fell into an obedient silence. Kira and Al seemed relieved, while Shin tried not to look as smug as he felt for correctly guessing how things would turn out.

One by one, the younger pilots went to sit down in a knot in the upper rows of the room.

"Tight ship you guys run here," Kamille muttered, his disgust unconcealed.

Shiro cast an annoyed glance Kamille's way. "Hey, lucky for you it is."

"So let's get this started, shall we?" Rondo addressed the room. She had a weather map of Orb projected on a forward screen. As warm fronts passed over the island nation, stylized pink flower icons followed them in an uneven line.

"In spring, the "Sakura Zensen" moves from south to north across the face of Orb, as the cherry trees blossom in accordance with the rhythms of the season. We shall defeat the Devil Gundam by imitating the cherry blossom front, and becoming a force that blossoms in fire." The map of Orb became a map of the area around Devil Gundam's impact crater, as observed by one of Earth's surviving communications satellites.

"So you're suggesting a strictly tactical approach to the battle?" Johnny asked, crossing his arms.

"I fail to see how the battle can be approached otherwise, given the large number of unknown variables. The only rational course of action is to prepare a flexible strategy, which can be modified as conditions on the battlefield evolve," Rondo said. "Does anyone here disagree?"

The room was silent for a moment. Kamille finally broke out in cold laughter. "Come on, how could we? This 'Sakura Front' stuff is just a fancy way of saying that we're going to fly by the seat of our pants."

"It is my pleasure to point out that you are quite wrong, Doctor Bidan," Rondo said. A series of icons appeared on the Devil Gundam area map. "While our information is not complete, we know a great deal more than nothing. These symbols indicate the relative position of Devil Gundam's command units. As you can see, each patrols one of the cardinal points around Devil Gundam's core, which appears incapable of movement."

A violet icon representing the Qubeley was arrayed to Devil Gundam's south. A red icon representing Neros Gundam lay to the west, and a yellow icon representing the Alvatore to the east. To the north was a white icon, representing the GuAIZ.

Domon nodded at the icons. "The directional guardians, Devil Gundam's Four Kings of Heaven. They will cut off any attempt to approach the Devil Gundam directly."

"Observation indicates that these units do not leave their assigned positions for long. We can reasonably expect to find them, arrayed as you see here, when we reach our destination. So our strategy is simply a matter of deciding how to best deploy our forces. First, we station a rear guard to watch over the HLV and shuttle boosters. Lieutenant Amada, Doctor Bidan, this will be your task." Icons representing the Ez8 and Zeta's heads appeared at the touchdown base, which- at MS speeds- would be a few hours away from the target area.

Shiro grinned. "Taking the defensive, huh? I've got some ideas for that..."

Amuro leaned forward, peering down at Kamille in his seat. "- you're going with us?"

Kamille tried to look more comfortable than he felt. "Beats twiddling my thumbs up here. I never said I'd do anything but pilot the HLV, though."

Rondo ignored Kamille's barb. "Next, there's the matter of who will escort the Gundam X to the Devil Gundam while the Kings of Heaven are distracted. Beyond the possibility of the Devil Gundam offering resistance, satellite data indicates a significant number of mass-produced units in the area..."

"The Death Army." Domon's voice was grim.

Rondo arched an eyebrow. "How forthright."

Demon continued on. "They are the Devil Gundam's foot soldiers. Individually, they are no match for a Gundam Fighter. But they are much stronger than Mobile Suits... and given enough time, Devil Gundam can produce them in overwhelming numbers."

"... if I may, Mister Kasshu," Johnny said. "Two thoughts spring to mind. One, a Mobile Fighter is a duelist's machine. It is designed strictly for one-on-one combat, if at extremely high specifications. Two, the Future Century has abandoned conventional warfare. So, to be frank, I cannot imagine whatever Mobile Suits that are in production in you era are on par with even the One Year War's Mobile Suits."

"If you are saying the Death Army is of no concern..." Domon began.

"I'm not. That would be foolish," Johnny agreed. "But I am saying that most of the Mobile Suits in our number were designed to deal with exactly this type of threat. We both know that your world has no reason to build machines like ours."

Domon paused for a moment, sobered by the realization. He slowly nodded to Johnny and, for the time being, said no more.

"So we would have the element of surprise when dealing with Devil Gundam's troops, Commander Ridden?" Gato asked.

"I absolutely believe that to be the case," Johnny said.

"So the Death Army are drones?" Kira asked. "Because it doesn't sound like they have pilots..."

"I cannot say," Domon said. "There are things shaped like men riding in the Death Army's chests, but they are not human anymore. I do not think they are truly alive."

"Dude! They're zombies?! We're gonna fight zombie Mobile Suits?" Garrod asked. He sounded almost excited at the prospect. Shin shot him a dirty look, but Garrod was oblivious.

Selene wrinkled her nose. "That's disgusting. Why would anyone-"

"I cannot say anything more!" Domon's voice rose in irritation, silencing the chatter.

Rondo took this as an opportunity to continue. "Given what we know, and the importance of Gundam X's role in the mission, I wish to assign the Freedom and Kyrios to be its escorts. Make sure the Gundam X makes it to Devil Gundam and has sufficient time to target and activate the Satellite Cannon. We will be approaching well after nightfall, and conditions should be clear. Hold off any enemies who attempt to intercept, and if necessary, cut a path through the Death Army. Is that acceptable, gentlemen?"

"I like the sound of that," Garrod said. "This'll let us square things up with you guys after our screw-up with Treize."

"It's an ideal mission for Kyrios. I accept."

"What about Rau?" Kira asked. "I thought you'd... well, I thought you'd want me to..."

"I think that would be an inefficient use of our resources. My plan was to assign the Crossbone X-1 and Turn-A to engage Le Creuset."

Kincaid started in his seat. "That's the first I've heard of this..."

"I don't understand. Wouldn't it make more sense to deploy Turn-A with the Gold Frame? They've both got cloaking abilities."

"It's a lovely thought, my dear Captain, but I think our tactical goal here should be the application of overwhelming force. If Rau Le Creuset is indeed some sort of Cosmic Era Newtype, then we simply deal with him by deploying stronger, better Newtypes."

Kincaid's eyes darkened. "Newtypes fighting Newtypes is missing the point, Lady."

"Are you saying you don't think yourself capable of handling Le Creuset, Mister Nau?" Rondo asked.

"That's beside the point! Newtypes aren't weapons-"

"People aren't weapons," Amuro interrupted. "But in a battle, we have to think differently. If it frees Kira up to do something more important, then this assignment makes sense."

"You guys probably would do a better job of fighting him," Kira said. "I don't think he'd be ready for... well, even just for Turn-A..."

"I'll play along, but something about this really stinks to me," Kincaid said.

Amuro could feel glances shooting up his way, and was trying not to look as embarrassed as he felt. It was perfectly Rondo to be offhand about her intentions toward him, but it had to look terrible suspicious to everyone else. "What are your plans for the Gold Frame, then?"

"I intend to send assign the Gold Frame to deal with Haman Karn's Qubeley, backed up by the Stargazer. I've nearly defeated Karn on my own. Back-up from a unit that can shield itself from beams would let me completely neutralize her."

"With all due respect, Lady Rondo, I must object." All heads turned toward Gato in surprise. His back was ramrod straight, his posture one of perfect military deference. He was even saluting. But his eyes burned with an intensity that the Izumo's veterans hadn't seen since the days before Garma Zabi's death.

Rondo was taken aback. "Lieutenant?"

"If this is indeed the battle that ends the Gundam War, this will be the last chance for Haman Karn to answer for her actions here. She has wronged the Izumo, that is true, but those crimes pale in comparison to the blow she has dealt the cause of Zeon. By rights, Haman Karn should answer to Commander Ridden and myself."

Johnny glanced up at him, startled. "Lieutenant, this is the first I've heard of this..."

"You don't want to do this. Haman Karn's close to unbeatable, even for a Newtype," Kamille said.

"It's true that she's survived duels with myself in the Turn-A and Rondo in the Gold Frame. At the very least, this is not a woman who's going to die easily," Amuro added.

"I've studied the Qubeley extensively. It's a suit designed for space combat. In gravity, her mobility will be reduced and she will be unable to deploy her bits. The Marasai and Geara Zulu would have a significant advantage in both power and mobility," Gato said. His eyes narrowed. "And, with all due respect, I have never believed in the myth of the Newtype's complete superiority when it comes to Mobile Suit combat."

Rondo glanced at Johnny. "Commander Ridden?"

"It's an audacious plan, but it's completely sound. I suppose I should expect no less from a man of the Delaz Fleet," Johnny exhaled. "I am willing to do this. It is the only way, in this world, that Haman Karn can be made to answer for Lord Garma's murder. But there's one question I want to ask you first, Lieutenant."

Gato glanced down at him. "You may ask, Commander."

"In our last sortie, you refused to entertain the notion of fighting Haman Karn personally. It seemed to me you still viewed her as your rightful commanding officer, regardless of what she might have done. What's prompted this sudden change of heart?" Johnny asked.

Gato lowered his head. His voice was thick with emotion. "Haman Karn is not the woman that I... that we believed her to be. We thought she and Axis would be the bulwark of Zeon's ideals. We thought she spoke for Lady Mineva and felt as we did." There could be no doubt that "we" meant, at the very least, the men of the Delaz Fleet.

"But... no, that's not possible. Not after the things I've seen the woman do here. It was surely never possible... she played us for fools!" Gato's voice rose, his face flushing with rage. "A woman who loved Zeon wouldn't have cursed us with the Devil Gundam! She wouldn't have, have..."

"She wouldn't have sold her soul to the Devil." Domon's voice was cold and brooding.

"Yes... yes, that's it exactly! The Haman Karn I have seen here is a woman who could never have loved anything but power. She has betrayed everything Zeon ever stood for... she used us! Her crimes can not, will not go unanswered!" Gato struggled to bring his voice down from a zealot's roar. His enthusiasm for his painful new cause burned with a terrifying ferocity.

"... if it were any other, asking for this, I would deny it," Rondo said. "But you are both outstanding pilots, Naturals or not. If you want Haman Karn, then I suppose you have more right to her than I do."

Rondo still looked a little wistful as she updated the forward screen. Icons of the Marasai and Geara Zulu's heads appeared near the Qubeley icon. "All I will ask is that if something goes wrong, if you are feeling overwhelmed, that you call the other field teams for back-up."

"Of course, Lady Rondo," Johnny agreed. He tried not to betray how utterly Gato's outburst had thrown his thoughts into disarray.

"So what is the Stargazer's assignment going to be?" Sven asked.

"Yeah, I don't mind helping, but I'd rather my life's work stay in one piece," Selene added.

"I still want the Stargazer's back-up," Rondo said. "But I think we'll swap assignments with what I had intended for Lieutenant Gato and Commander Ridden. I was going to send them to scout out and assess the abilities of the unknown enemy unit, the Alvatore."

"You want us to fight the thing we don't know anything about?" There was undisguised dread in Selene's voice.

"If it lacks a GN Drive, I don't think it will pose any threat to your Mobile Suits," Al spoke up. "And if it is using some sort of GN Drive, then the Stargazer's energy shields will most likely work against any GN particle weaponry it's using."

"I'm not exactly a pilot trained for combat..." Selene began.

"I am," Sven's voice was soft but firm. "I'll protect the Stargazer."

Selene was startled. "Could you...? I mean..."

"I take no pleasure in saying this," Rondo said, "But Phantom Pain's reputation is well-earned."

"Stellar's friend will do good!" She shouted from the other side of the room, utterly oblivious to the ominous mood.

"I understand that Stargazer is very important to you. I trusted you... so you can trust me now." Sven did not look directly at Selene as he spoke, instead his eyes toward the floor. His pale face was flushed, though.

"I guess I don't have a choice... which I guess makes us even," Selene laughed to herself.

-X-X-X-

There was a pause, like the room collectively exhaling. Domon's voice cut through it. "So that leaves us to face Michelo Chariot."

Rondo nodded. "Perceptive, Mister Kasshu. Yes, I intended to deploy Shining, Destiny, and Gaia to deal with Neros-"

"Wait," Shin said. "Does Gaia really need to deploy? Couldn't she stay at the landing base?"

Rondo had no time to answer. Stellar thrust her head forward at Shin, pouting furiously. "Stellar is a good pilot!"

"I know you are! I know! It's just..." Shin fumbled for an excuse. "... the other teams are teams of two, and... protecting the base is important?"

Stellar's furious pout was now simply fury. "Stellar is a good pilot! Stellar wants to help her friends fight! Why doesn't Shin want Stellar to help?!"

"It's not that! I just don't want- you know, I don't want to worry about you-" Shin glanced around the room, desperate for help. He had the sinking feeling that everyone present understood what he was trying to do, except Stellar.

Garrod gestured furiously at Shin from his seat behind him, mouthing the words "STOP TALKING" as if trying to convey the idea through sheer force of will. Domon was avoiding eye contact with the quarreling couple, this battle far outside the realm of his expertise.

It was too late. Stellar rose from her seat, voice vehement. "Stellar does not want to worry about Shin! Stellar wants... she wants..." Stellar's face began to contort with effort. Her mouth moved soundlessly. It was painfully apparent what she was wanted to say, but the words were denied her.

I want. I want to be with you. The silent words were written on her eyes and the tears that welled up in them.

"Why?!" she shouted, hands shaking. "Why can't Stellar... why can't she say what she wants?! Isn't Stellar like her friends?"

Of course she wasn't. But who would want to tell her that? Especially now, when she stood before them wild-eyed, chest heaving, her psyche smashing against the walls the Alliance had built there.

"Miss Loussier, that is enough!" Rondo's cry was sharp with authority. "At this rate you're going to d-"

She never quite got the words out. Shin and Stellar's friends erupted into a perfectly synchronized shout. "DON'T SAY IT!"

Rondo was, for once, openly startled. "Don't say-"

"The D-word!" Kira said. "You can't say the d-word around her!"

"The-" Rondo paused. "D-I-E?" She spelled it out.

"That one!" Garrod said. "Don't say it! She flips out..."

"We sure found that out the hard way..." Al grumbled.

"It was Heero's fault!" Garrod protested. "He said it!"

Al frowned. "It's Heero's fault you were being obnoxious?"

"Guys, come on," Kira muttered. "Not now."

Shin felt like he should say something, but nothing would come to mind. The sight of her in tears and wild-eyed tore at his heart. He wanted to protect her, but in this moment, the fact that he did not truly understand what she was weighed heavily upon him.

"Stellar, it's time to rest." It was not clear when in the disastrous conversation Sven had quietly made his way down to the front of the room, and the way he forcefully intruded was far from characteristic. The aura of authority he carried himself with seemed to have an immediate effect on Stellar. The black of Sven's Phantom Pain uniform was never more conspicuous.

Her breathing slowed, heaving sobs becoming sniffles. "But Stellar- Stellar has to-"

"It is time to rest," Sven repeated. His eyes locked with hers. Stellar finally slumped, defeated. It was impossible to know if she was really tired, or if some insidious obedience programmed into her by her Alliance handlers was asserting itself. Either way, the tension in the room was finally diffused as Stellar and Sven began to move toward one of the doors.

"I'm going with him," Kamille announced, to no one in particular. He rose to follow Sven and Stellar out of the room. Shin flexed his hands, glancing down at them. He felt thoroughly useless and unworthy at the moment. No one spoke until the trio was clear of the room, doors sliding shut behind them.

"Awkward, huh?" Kincaid said. He was smiling, an obvious attempt to lighten the mood. The other pilots were not even slightly receptive to it.

"... would it be fair to say that you all understand and accept your assignments?" Rondo asked. Even she sounded wearied by events.

A chorus of assent rose from her audience, who all seemed to be in a hurry to be somewhere else. Operation: Sakura Zensen would soon begin. Now there was only the matter of killing time until the mission began, in true military fashion.

-X-X-X-

TO BE CONTINUED...

-X-X-X-

You know what's not a Gundam series, but has a great Gundam-esque soundtrack? Attack on Titan. It's an anime and manga I'd highly recommend to any fan of Gundam at its most brutal.

-X-X-X-

- ACTIVE PILOTS / ASSIGNED UNITS

- IZUMO White Faction

Johnny Ridden / AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Royal Guards, Johnny Ridden Custom)

Anavel Gato / RMS-108 Marasai (Zeon Colors)

Shin Asuka / ZGMF-X42S Destiny

Rondo Mina Sahaku (Commander) / MBF-P01 Astray Gold Frame Amatu Rondo Mina Custom

Amuro Ray / SYSTEM (Turn-A)-99 Turn-A Gundam

Domon Kasshu / GF13-017NJ Shining Gundam

Shiro Amada / RX-79(G) Gundam Ez-8 Kai

Garrod Ran / GX-9900 Gundam X

Stellar Loussier / ZGMF-X88S Gaia

Kira Yamato / ZGMF-X10A Freedom

Allelujah Haptism / GN-003 Kyrios (undergoing repairs)

Kamille Bidan / MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam

Kincaid Nau / XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

Selene McGriff & Sven Cal Bayang / GSX-401FW Stargazer

Heero Yuy / ?

- KIA / DESTROYED

Lowe Gear / Astray Red Frame

Quattro Bageena / nu Gundam

Ed "The Ripper" Harrelson / Sword Calamity

Witz Sou / Airmaster Burst

Christina Mackenzie / Gundam NT-1 Alex

Loran Cehack

Garma Zabi

White Base

Dogos Gear

- DEVIL GUNDAM Black Faction

Michelo Chariot / Devil Neros Gundam

Haman Karn / Devil Qubeley

Rau Le Creuset / Devil GuAIZ

Alejandro Corner / Devil Alvatore

Kyoji Kasshu / Devil Gundam

- KIA / DESTROYED

Cima Garahau / Gerbera Tetra

Paptimus Scirocco / Messala

Shagia Frost / Virsago

Olba Frost / Ashtaron

Clotho Buer / Raider

Treize Khushrenada / Tallgeese II

Flay Allster

Epyon


End file.
